In this guest post Paolo of Charming Sardinia highlights the attractions of Villasimius in the south east of Sardinia.

The Italian island Sardinia has been the favourite destination of the international jet set for quite some time. Especially the Costa Smeralda, on the north side of the island, is known as the ‘holiday home for the rich and famous’. However, Sardinia is also a great destination for people without unlimited bank accounts.

Villasimius Beach

A great example is Villasimius, a small municipality at about 50 km of the capital city of the island, Cagliari. Villasimius only has around 3,000 inhabitants in the winter, but this grows to a stunning 50,000 during the summer. Those who rather avoid crowded, touristic places, are probably better off visiting this region in the south-east from March to May, or from September until November. During these months, you can enjoy the beauty of Villasimius in relative peace and quiet.

A variety of choices

Enthusiastic cooks of traditional restaurants, such as ‘Serra Paolo’ and ‘Nuova Giulietta’, make sure that you’ll never be hungry. An ancient fortress, challenging hiking trails, churches and museums make sure that you’ll never get bored in this part of the island. But that’s only the start…

The Fortress at Villasimius, Sardinia

The geographic area in which Villasimius is located is called Sarrabus, in which the main economic activities are sheep breeding and agriculture. Almonds, lemons, peaches and oranges are cultivated mainly in this area and then exported to Central Europe; wine production is also a main activity. Visiting orchards should therefore definitely be on your agenda, as this (literally) lets you taste the local culture.

Villasimius covers an area of 58 square km and includes the part of the coastline from Porto Sa Ruxi to Punta Molentis. This coastline happens to be one of the most amazing ones in the Mediterranean Sea, with amazing beaches, cliffs and gulfs, which means that Villasimius also is a great place for beach lovers and diving fanatics. Sardinian beaches have been listed in several European ìBeach top 10 listsî, and when you see the sun slowly sizzling into the Sardinian sea, you’ll definitely understand why.