Sardinia in car: Driving into the night on the island

After two days of driving through mainland Italy and an eight-hour cruise on the car ferry, we finally reach our destination.

Now I could finally try what I had been looking for the most. Driving the car around the island and exploring more than the nearest beach...

So what are the roads like in Sardinia?

 

If you want to skip our story and looking just for useful information about roads and country search for 💁 emoji.

First impression

Our ferry arrived in the evening and the port we choose was on the other side of the island than the city where we had our "base camp". That meant, I didn't have to wait too long for the first real taste of the island roads. Right after we got through car mayhem in the port, we started our drive against the night. And boy, what a treat it was!

My plan was to head to the north and follow the road around the northern coast towards Castelsardo. In the beginning, the road led us through serpentines up to the hills, and after a bit, the road started to go down and we had a nice view of the coast, lit with the moonlight and covered with small lights of the coastal cities and villages. The road itself was a bit narrow, more than I am used to, but the tarmac was in good condition and the drive was very smooth. We kept enjoying the view and I was very happy that I could finally use my other gears other than number six. Up to the moment when my GPS made up her mind and decided not to follow my selected roads.

Since it was quite late at this point, I gave up arguing with her (yes, I usually address my GPS as her 😅) and just keep following her instructions. And for the moment we were heading back to the port.

Sardinia motorways

Soon we reached the big city of Olbia, full of nightlife and city lights. After a short drive through the city, we turned to something which looked like a motorway.

Unfortunately, Sardinia doesn't have any motorway. However, there are two four-lane freeways, which connect south with north and east with west. Kinda.

On the other hand, this means all roads are free. Something, which I didn't know about at that time, so immediately I started to stress about payments, how we could miss the toll gate, or if some kind of vignette is needed. I found out later that all was good.

Although the road was not actually a motorway, the ride was good and the condition of the road was top. After we left Olbia we started to climb again and we entered "the void". Ok, not really, but on the sides of the road we saw fewer city lights and we been surrounded by dark hills lited only by moonlight. For the moment it felt very mystical. 

The traffic was very low (it was close to midnight) and basically no trucks at all. With few road works that we had to pass, I could really enjoy the drive.

We followed this road for around an hour, but because our destination was more to the north and lower on the coast, we couldn't stay on this road. Near the village of Burghidu, we turned down from the freeway, and despite the fact we had to descent to the coast, we started to climb again. This time steeper.

Serpentines, serpentines

After leaving the freeway, the road changes. Roadway became more narrow, in some parts not big enough for two cars and serpentines returned. And oh boy, what a serpentines they were. This road (SS132) could put many rally stages to shame. The tarmac was still in very good condition. One amazing turn after another, mixed with some 180-degree turns, going up and down. And since everyone in the car was sleeping and zero traffic here, I could unleash all 140 horses under my hood and have some low gear fun.

Ok, ok. Was really late, I didn't know the road and I had passengers inside, so I couldn't have that much fun. Yet I had the feeling of 10 years old, who just found the best hideout in the forest. It was very enjoyable to drive here, especially when Italian highways, tons of trucks, and constant road works appeared in my mind. We stopped after some time to stretch and smoke and since we stopped at a crossroad, immediately we started to do Supernatural jokes (yep, the Crowley one). Another road from the crossroad, led somewhere to the dark, more up and I had hard times resisting not taking this road and doing some midnight exploring.

Almost there

From here, we finally started our, still twisty, descend. After many more sharp, low-gear turns, we joined the bigger road. We would came this road if we would drive longer on SS132 and left the freeway later, but I was really happy the GPS took us another way. After we land in port I felt a bit tired, however now I was awake and aching for more. The road now became more straight and faster, yet still quite enjoyable. More and more lights started to appear on sides and soon we entered the city of Santa Maria Coghinas. While I was enjoying the midnight streets in the city under hills, I made a wrong turn. Leave it up to GPS! And you will end up taking shortcuts through someone's yard and bus parking station. 

The road from here was quite ordinary, passing smaller hills, traversing valleys, and with a more straight profile, no sharp turns, and wider. The drive was good and smooth as the tarmac was in good condition.

We followed SP90 for a while until we reached The Elephant tunnel, on which top sits the Roccia dell'Elefante, or Elephant rock (I will talk about this in another part). Of course, we didn't know that, so we kept wondering about the name until the next day. The SP90 road stretches all the way from outside of Castelsardo to the northern part of the island Santa Teresa Gallura with slightly over 70 km of tarmac passing through valleys and hills, changing from straight to very twisty.

We used only a small part of the SP90 tonight when we turned down to a smaller side road entering Castelsardo from the East. After a short drive mainly descending down through a series of nice turns, the light of port and residences on Castelsardo cliffs finally welcomed us. Just shy a few minutes after 1 AM.

Castelsardo

Before we could celebrate our arrival, there was one more thing left to do. Get through the city and park the car.

We have been staying with my wife's mom, who lives here in the city. Which was nice. To stay in her house. The location of the house was not so nice for me.

Castelsardo is a town built on a big hill with an amazing fortress sitting on top and an old town stretching from port to the top. Most people live here, in the old town, or the newer east part which lies on an equally big cliff and hill.

And all this means that streets are very narrow, very steep, and very twisty (In some cases made even from the cobblestones). And most of the time also full of cars parking on the sides.

If I say twisty, I mean really twisty. On some streets, they even have a special surface for cars to maintain grip and to be able to climb up these hills. And we are talking about places where there is no snow and ice in winter.

I have been here a few years ago, so I kinda knew what to expect. However. From the very first moment, I turned to the residential area, I had a feeling that I have a very inappropriate car for this city. Zig zagging around old Puntos and Pandas and similar "toy cars" with my Škoda, which is few centimeters over two meters wide, was only funny for everyone else in the car. Not so much for me.

And parking was not better. The spot where I had to fit my four-and-a-half meter mothership was, I would say appropriate for a scooter. For a while, I kept entertaining the rest of the family with my attempts to park in a small and steep place (Luckily, neighbors were already sleeping) until I finally squeeze there somehow. If this would be the last weird parking moment of the entire vacation I would be happy.

The show was finally over and was time to unload the trunk and hit the sack.

Next time I will talk more about driving in Sardinia and share some interesting places to visit if you seeking more than just relaxing on the beach.

Sardinia in car: Journey there

Sardinia. Island in Mediterranean Sea, off the west coast of Italy. A place of many contrasts. One moment you are surrounded by tall rocky mountains, another you sit under a palm on sandy beach with azure ocean in front of you and then you find yourself, in what looks like savanna in the middle of Tanzania (minus giraffes and elephants 😆 ).

My first visit to the island in 2014, wasn't most spectacular one, let's be honest. Yes, we did have a good time on the beach. Yes, I have eaten so much seafood that I couldn't see shrimps for the rest of the year. And yes, I did enjoy the moments of doing nothing too. But...

Something was missing. Some sense of ... Adventure! The feel of discovering and exploring!

So this year we agreed (me and my wife), that we try something different. We will drive there and finally see more of the island. Yeah, and also there is some pandemic running around so flying is not the safest option this days ....

Let's go !

If you want to skip our story and looking just for useful information about roads and country search for 💁 emoji.

Journey begins

A few days before departure, I received SMS that our ferry is postponed for a few hours. Where others see a problem, my wife sees opportunity: "We can visit Venice then!" she said. So we did!

We woke up early morning around 3am. Our plan was to leave the house at least at 5am to avoid rush hour traffic in Bratislava, Slovakia capital city and on the border crossing. Because traffic was really good we manage to avoid also traffic in Wien and after a short drive, we started to climb to the alps on A2 toward Graz.

At the very moment the hills opened and give up the view, we found ourself surrounded by beautiful hillsides, full of fields, meadows, farms, pine forests and rivers.

(During one stop I brought out my 70-200 and take few pics)

But still long drive ahead so we did only a few stops for food, coffee and continue towards the border crossing and Tarvisio in Italy.