Porto Rafael Real Estate Blog

Porto Pollo: The Surfers' Paradise in Sardinia

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 08:23:03 GMT

Porto Pollo: The Surfers' Paradise in Sardinia

Porto Pollo is one of the most captivating destinations for windsurfing and kitesurfing enthusiasts in Sardinia. Located on the northern coast, between Palau and Santa Teresa Gallura, this corner of paradise is renowned for its crystal-clear waters and consistent winds, providing ideal conditions for water sports all year round. Whether you’re a board sports enthusiast or simply looking for an extraordinary beach to relax on, Porto Pollo is the destination for you.

Why Porto Pollo is Perfect for Windsurfing and Kitesurfing

The climate of Porto Pollo is characterized by steady winds, especially the Mistral, which blows from the northwest with an intensity ranging from 14 to 30 knots, perfect for those who love the thrill of the waves (Porto Pollo). The two main bays of Porto Pollo, separated by a narrow strip of sand connecting the mainland to Bird Island, offer optimal conditions for various water activities. The west bay, Porto Liscia, is particularly suitable for experienced surfers due to its powerful waves, while the east bay is more sheltered and offers calmer waters, ideal for beginners (Windsurf Magazine).

The Attractions of Porto Pollo

In addition to water sports, Porto Pollo offers a range of natural attractions. The panoramic view from the village, with its golden sandy beaches and turquoise sea, is an experience not to be missed (WaterWind). The Island of the Seagulls, easily reachable on foot, is an oasis of tranquility and natural beauty, perfect for a day of hiking or simply relaxing in the sun (SardegnaTurismo).

Services and Infrastructure in Porto Pollo

Porto Pollo is equipped with all the necessary infrastructure for a holiday full of comfort and adventure. Here you will find numerous windsurfing and kitesurfing schools, high-quality rental equipment, and repair centers for any need. Additionally, the location is well-equipped with restaurants, beach bars, and specialty shops that make every day perfect, both in and out of the water (Kite Jungle).

The Best Time to Visit Porto Pollo

The best time to visit Porto Pollo is during the summer months, from May to September, when the weather is warm and dry, with temperatures reaching 26-33°C (Porto Pollo). However, even during spring and autumn, Porto Pollo remains an ideal destination due to the constant presence of wind, a crucial element for board sports .

Where to Stay in Porto Pollo: Villa Aidan

After a day spent riding the waves of Porto Pollo, there’s nothing better than retreating to a luxury villa like Villa Aidan . Located just a short distance from the beach, Villa Aidan offers comfort and elegance, with spectacular sea views and a range of exclusive amenities. Whether you're looking for a base for your sporting adventures or a tranquil haven to relax in, Villa Aidan is the perfect choice for your stay in Sardinia.

Conclusion: Plan Your Holiday in Porto Pollo

Porto Pollo is not just a destination for water sports enthusiasts, but a place where natural beauty and adventure blend to create an unforgettable experience. Don't miss this unique opportunity to experience the magic of Sardinia.

Frequently Asked Questions about Porto Pollo

Tik Tok, c’mon!

Mon, 15 May 2023 09:27:44 GMT

Tik Tok, c’mon!

In 1960 , when Rafael laid the first stone of his village, Italian television broadcasts one single channel, channel one precisely. In 1961 channels broadcasted become two, followed very shortly by Italian Swiss Television. Since 1971, the new black is receiving at home channels one, two, Switzerland and Koper, strictly in this order.

Stars and Vips are seen only at the movie, while television invents new ones: it's Mike Bongiorno's era, and those who take part in his quizzes enter the collective imagination: even today almost everyone knows who Mrs. Longari is, even if they have never seen her. Seated incognito in the small square, Rafael's aristocratic friends follow one another, seduced by his visionary project among Gallura's rocks. They are slowly joined by famous actors, photographers and stylists, industrialists, in short most prominent society, protected by sobriety and discretion typical of the place. In Porto Rafael , anonymity is almost a second motto, a subtitle to add after Rafael's most-known one "Dreaming is living", which could sound like: "Living in peace is a dream". Here understatement is ensured : in nearby Palau there is just one cinema, no theaters, and at the newsstand only few newspapers. It will take at least twenty years to possess the gift of ubiquity , through which contemporary myths multiply themselves as mushrooms, thanks to the hundreds of movies, episodic series, entertainment programs and more, due to commercial TVs explosion since the end of the 70s onwards (reached with likewise force by radio stations, ushering in no border music era). While Rafael lazily prepares sangria to offer to his guests on his birthday, with only one payphone near the perfumery, in Porto Rafael, as elsewhere in the world, first cell phones establishe a point of no return , opening up perspectives on the future unimaginable up to that moment.

Famous people own encrypted phone numbers, their friends difficult to access numbers, friends of friends have no cell phones at all, because at that time a phone call costs like a dinner for six at La Gritta restaurant . Extramarital affairs have new underground tools, not only opportunity to talk freely wherever you are, but also to send passionate messages which replace love cards, letters and even emails, hidden in cumbersome computers, too complicated to carry to the beach. However it takes so much time to type "Let's meet at 4pm, same place", that text is ready by 3.59pm and appointment regularly goes up in smoke.

Rafael did not imagine what tomorrow would hold only thirty years later. The old sense of gratitude, after founding a phone token, discovering you own the exact amount to buy it from a stranger; dinners with the couple of friends with the only big screen in all Porto Rafael, to see previous year's blockbuster movie; hundreds holiday pictures to develop when back home; the emotional bewilderment after getting lost by car among dirt roads and not having the faintest idea of where you are; the sense of fullness for being in Porto Rafael and not wishing to be simultaneously elsewhere... all this no longer exists. If now we expect a rhetorical celebration of the past, we all would fall short of the writing in huge letters with the Consortium, welcomes today consortium members and their friends: "The best is yet to come" .

At a time when the mobile does everything , even lighting in the night; in which we all pretend to be famous, filmed and photographed at all hours; where we all have becomed opinion leaders, journalists, politicians, influencers hunting for an emoticon; exactly right now, we are witnessing such a revolutionary social phenomena , that maybe it's worth to question humbly why our posts receive an average of 12 likes, while there is a young Italian boy who is the most followed tik toker in the world . This is the new magic, the new frontier of mystery: better to give up and see how it ends.

P.S. From Porto Rafael you can easily reach the small town of Domus De Maria, a beautiful excursion by car looking for Daniele Cabras, the very famous and funny Sardinian tik toker , with two million followers.

A pleasure: if you find him, could you please take him a picture holding Villa Aidan brochure? You don't mind, do you?

Porto Rafael Shire

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:26:57 GMT

Porto Rafael Shire

If after an intense day at the beach you feel nostalgic for the old farmhouse in central Italy where you used to spend summer, and you feel like sipping the excellent wine your grandfather used to get, never been able to drink elsewhere; if today you wish to sit once more under your figs, listening the farmer saying anecdotes about your family, even if always the same and repeated hundreds times; in short, if you would like to swap perfect sunset which stands now in front of Villa Aidan with a less performing sun , when it intertwines with trees and breaks behind the hills, releasing long and shady twilights; well, do not abandon the island. It is our duty to inform you that the farmhouse of your childhood is now surrounded by anonymous residential complexes delimiting city boundaries, which are now close and looming. Under the fig trees there is no longer the long wooden plank on which you struggled with school homework, before having a break with large slices of tasteless bread and novel oil. The large space is now a parking for visitors, and where stables were, it opened a mediocre restaurant, stormed by herds of people looking for souvenirs.

Your ancestors and places history, those plots which have delivered you to the present as novel seedlings with strong and invisible roots, has become a concise learned by heart summary repeated by a local guide (to tell the truth it was much more exciting and believable in farmer's mouth). In short, when you feel tired of Maddalena archipelago, but when even breaking news from continent are discouraging, not far from Porto Rafael a scenographic apparatus will take action in real time to disperse any melancholy , along a rural itinerary through main Sardinia's wine estates, which will return you almost all your memories intact. In a naturalistic context among soft hills, steep woods and rocky mountains, hardly believing surrounded by the sea, you can spend peaceful hours listening to fairy tales repeated to the bitter end, after the owner of the estate will meet you with an open smile to welcome you. He will tell you about his great-grandfather who decided as a joke to allocate part of the land to grapes, when wine only satisfied his family needs and those of the closest community; he will light up like a child in recalling the moment when he sensed he could dare more; he will talk about his first investments and expansions, travels up and down the island, when stocks began to run low, and orders to increase. He will amaze you with his impeccable English, apologizing for appearing tired, but he just landed from Hong Kong, and will leave for Berlin in a few days.

However, he will never reveal which his secret ingredienti is, the one now dancing in your mouth inside a sip of Cannonau. Within few kilometres, restless and competitive like brothers from different fathers, local winemakers vie for mother earth's love with creativity and perfectionism, which today make Sardinian wines an excellence all over the world. In Olbia – Tempio area, crossing province of Arzachena, Porto Cervo and Luogosanto, there are some of the most prestigious wineries on the island: Capichera, Cantina delle Vigne, Vigne Surrau, Tenute Olbios, Siddura and, worthy of particular note, Concaentosa winery . If you pass by here at after-hours time, you may come across Nicolina returning from orchard. If she likes you, she may prepare you some gnocchi with sweet tomato sauce followed by omelettes, cold cuts and excellent pecorino cheese. She will uncork the most expensive label proposing a toast in your honor, under terrified gaze of his son Emanuele, who has officially taken over the reins of the company: as he knows his mother, he knows she won't stop at a single bottle .

Nicolina, landowner who as a young woman competed with males in underwater fishing, who horrifies by any form of female submission, catches her son's dismay and out of the blue informs the guests today matriarchy still exists in Sardinia. In a calm tone of voice, as clear as her blue eyes, then she adds, without giving weight, that until proven otherwise everything sorrounding them far as the eye can see belongs to her: they sound like words of an archaic divinity, while it is the truth. You will return to Porto Rafael seduced by Nicolina and sober, as if by a spell, which will persist even the next day, when you will start to call Villa Aidan "my country estate ", creating confusion around you. Then Nicolina will get tired of keeping tabs on you, she will murmur two magic words and you will see the sea again, which has never moved from there anyway.

Porto Rafael, a rash decision

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 09:46:17 GMT

Porto Rafael, a rash decision

Winter, as we know, makes us melancholy. Holidays are a distant memory, and even more distant seems the flight to some beach where forget cold. Among the ones more eager there is a person we’ll call The Type: woman, around 45 years old, living on the continent in an industrialized town. She is married or separated, has two children or none, works in a communication agency or volunteers . She would like to be now on a boat, but the only possible crossing in these gloomy hours is the one navigable on search engines. Her smartphone is waiting for a simple gesture of her fingers to sail anywhere, but today she doesn't feel like pulling up even the anchor of her virtual sea. Maybe is this thick and thin rain, or the night outside despite it's just 5pm. She feels a hundred years old. She types the word "old age" on the phone with the same ambiguous curiosity one may have for a scary movie. First link appears on the screen, and at the same time a stairlift advertisement starts, in which a happy old lady transports herself from the ground to upper floor. The Type closes advertising, her house develops horizontally for 340 square meters, and then what are a handful of steps? It's just a day that doesn't take off. She reads random among words staring at her from the screen, and catches these few lines: … "65 years are considered the age of transition to the condition of elderly, although threshold for so-called old age tends progressively to move forward …". The Type breathes a big relief sigh: 65 years are infinitely far away! Before getting old she will have lived long enough, and by now youth will maybe have bored her. She feels wise, she's taking it philosophically. She sketches a small smile, but immediately regrets it. Surgeon had warned her: for the first days better to keep her lips still. The labiaplasty surgery gone perfectly, but stitches are still alive, when stretching mouth it hurts. The Type must get used to prostheses, which for now are only bluish and foreign bodies.

More than Angelina Jolie, who inspired her for the operation, she seems Popeye, due to the straw sideways with which she sips a vegetable soup, and the swollen jaw after anesthesia. She would like some radishes, but who can chew in these conditions? Breast augmentation was a breeze in comparison, coupled with liposuction of hips that reduced her wardrobe by three sizes. The only drawback is that now, to dress from the waist down, she has to look in children's shops, while to contain her breast she buys anchor tie rods from a well-known company, with not always harmonious aesthetic results. However, the warm season will not catch her unprepared! Blepharoplasty made the previous year fortunately eliminated imperfections of heavy eyelids, and even if now she is no longer able to blink her eyes, she can prevent any structural failure and intervene in time before fateful swimsuite season. That infinitesimal wrinkle crept along her forehead does not escape her, though she did a lifting once again just a few months ago. She'll ask the house keeper to iron it, the soleplate slips wonderfully.

The only doubt that haunts her, thinking about next summer, is that maybe she will be held ashore when embarking, since the picture on her identity card no longer corresponds to her true appearance. One day, in a downtown boutique, a saleswoman even approached her asking why she was all alone and where her parents were. The Type doesn't like Porto Rafael . Especially habitual women vacationers seem crazy: first of all, they don't hide their real age; they wear wide pinafores which can even reach size 50 (which The Type believed it had been outlawed); on the beach they laugh regardless of inevitable expression furrows the sun will mark on their faces; they exchange fruit, focaccia, sunscreen and anecdotes about their loves full of scars; at sunset you meet them by the roadside, with long sarongs rolled up under their arm, holding soft straw bags. They go back home, and if by chance the car of one of their husbands or friends passes around, they accept a ride as if they were getting into a carriage: they play at being queens without turning into dolls.

The group arranges to meet for dinner at Villa Aidan, tonight the chef cooks based on fish , and the most daring ladies serve themselves spaghetti with clams twice. The Type is literally upset by this audacious naturalness, by this cheeky simplicity: these dangerous dissidents seem at ease even with their hair ruffled by wind. Their favorite mirror is sea water, which they shatter continuously with improvised dips and liberating exclamations.

The Type stops a few hours in Porto Rafael.
Upon returning town she will speak of it as an infamy place, she will advise friends against going there, describing its revolutionary climate. For next year, The Type has found a nice resort where short hibernations are carried out, no more rash decisions.

Sardinian spoken

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 09:01:43 GMT

Sardinian spoken

Infrequently, but it does happen, in Porto Rafael people complain about Sardinians, blamed for every single hitch. Owners and tenants when meeting occasionally at the market - one of the best in the area, with an excellent selection of products aimed at Italians and foreigns - by glances and half-words make an appointment at Harry's Bar outside, to talk freely far from the ears of the three market owners: Grazietta, Ilaria and Giulia. Once the shopping is over, while Ilaria has just finished advising an uncertain English lady on the best oil to buy, here come vacationers by groups of two or three, go ordering a cappuccino.

Discussion is rigorously divided into three main modules:

1. "Plumbing affairs" (there are those who swear they had to wait until 2 pm for an intervention scheduled for 8 am, with the result that the boat trip has gone downhill);

2. "Saltiness damages", even if more realistically attributable to the sea;

3. "Local maids", which is when the round table is divided into two work subgroups: "Sardinians no longer want to do menial jobs" and "Citizenship income: calamity of our times";

Porto Rafael's guests arrive from the 4 corners of the world and at certain moments Harry's Bar looks truly a small Babel teeming with different idioms and accents. You see Italians, English, French, Austrians, Russians, Czechs, Americans who magically understand each other, combining words from all European languages, mixed together at random by those who know to be citizens of the world in defiance of the most elementary grammatical rules.

When even the latecomer plumber shows up for a coffee - after having explained to the furious tenant that he just needs to turn on the tap for having water - it seems that people around voluntarily raise voices, everyone tries to emerge, maybe to impress him. We witness the representation of a ridicolous class struggle, aimed at discrediting plumber's crude talent in conversing with pipes, when compared to their subtle reasoning and intellect strategies with which, modesty aside, they hold the entire social structure, and therefore plumber's family too. However, the more generous ones invite the plumber at the table: "Willst du was trinken?", but the technician doesn't understand German, he smiles politely and leaves regaining his van, they wait for him in Arzachena.

Screams cease, holidaymakers resume their complaints against the Sardinians with usual worldly muttering, "... and they don't even know a language other than Italian", someone says, greeted by applause and nods of approval. Grazietta , at the same bar in a break from work, takes the floor. No one has noticed her presence, we are so used seeing her in the shop at work, that more than one even believes she lives there permanently , given that nuraghes are no longer considered up to standard.

She speaks in a natural tone of voice, neither high nor low:

“In the Sardinian area there are two fundamental dialectal groupings : Logudorese in the northern part and Campidanese in the southern part.

Since 1997 the regional law has recognized the Sardinian language as having equal dignity with respect to Italian. Since 1999, the Sardinian language has also been protected by the national law on linguistic minorities ; among the twelve groups in question, the Sardinian one constitutes the most robust community in absolute terms although in continuous lack in the number of locutors. The Sardinian language was born , like the other neo-Latin languages, from the evolution of the Latin imported to the island by the Romans starting from the 3rd century BC.

At the crisis of the empire, Sardinia fell under the control of the Vandals, but the Latin idiom was by now widespread throughout the island and remained the primary character of its linguistic constitution. Towards the beginning of the second millennium AD. the first written documents testify to the emergence of internal differentiations in particular between the southern and northern variants. For scholars of Latin and Romance languages, Sardinian has earned its own particular place as a typological case of language which, despite its evolution, has remained very close to the forms of the original Latin . Subsequently, due to the effect of the different peoples who arrive on the island, the autochthonous language is exposed, to varying degrees, to the influence of different external languages which modify and enrich the lexicon in a particular way. Although the island's ruling classes embrace the dominant language of the moment from time to time, giving rise to a substantial plurilingualism, the populations remain stubbornly attached to the varieties of their language , making it survive to the present day. One coffee, thanks. Actually: unu cafeu, gratzias.”

Everyone looks dumbstruck. "If you allow, Grazietta, let me offer," says a woman shyly in general embarrassment. From behind, a man Vicentine in his fortys, a tenent who usually rents Villa Aidan on the last two weeks of July , exclaims candidly : "The hell, you Sardinians, how touchy you are!".

One's head in the clouds

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 07:06:37 GMT

One's head in the clouds

If you too have been scolded all your life for having your "head in the clouds", and always been exhorted to remain firmly planted on ground and walk quickly towards objectives reachebles only with shoes on your feet, in Porto Rafael you can finally free yourself from ballasts , slowly lifting you up, while an unexpected panorama of life, shapes and colors opens up above and below you.

A few inches from ground, when just started your timid ascent, like children disobeying their strict preceptors, you are likely to narrowly miss the head of a cormorant coming out of the sea, with a small fish in his beak, before he resumes his taut flight along water. Funny mix of terrestrial and aquatic nature, cormorant prefers sheltered seas, avoids deep waters even when close to the mainland and rarely moves away from shores. It spends a lot of time on land, perched on rocks, cliffs, sandbars, shipwrecks, poles or bare trees.

So don't be offended if he just bless your journey with a long questioning look: he is barred from altitudes, and ignoring where you are going, he even doesn't know he should envy you.

A little further up, you are almost certain you are about colliding against a lonely pink cloud. Shortly before the crash you may close your eyes, ready for the soft and inevitable recoil, before realize it only deals with a flock of flamingos in flight, probably frightened to see you floating in the sky like them, highlighting danger with the many expressive calls their species own.

Your bizarre presence will not go unnoticed even by ducks, coots, storks, sultan chickens, black-winged stilts, kestrels, buzzards, peregrine falcons, queen's falcons, griffons, Sardinian partridges ; and if by chance you extend your flight until late at night, owls and barn owls will keep you company. You will discover air is by no means the catastrophic void someone had described you - synonymous with debauchery, laziness, carelessness -, but it rather contains an infinity of stable roads through which multitudes of winged beings move safely, following millenary and infallible trajectories, a carriageable passage projected by a barefoot Engineer with unrivaled talent.

Shaken by a shiver of awareness and wonder, maybe you realize you have climbed too high, or maybe you only remember that t onight you have guests for dinner at Villa Aidan, and that you still have to pick up the roasted suckling pig from Oggiano's butcher downtown . Don't be scared. Trust that the right wind starts blowing, the Sardinian air is full of them: Mistral, Ponente, Scirocco, Grecale, Tramontana . Take the first one that comes along, they are Palau's sky-cabs. Your guests will be surprised to see you a little distracted while dining, looking strangely dreamy.

Someone will report having see you "with head in the clouds", don't pay attention.

Not only salt

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 16:51:48 GMT

Not only salt

If you suffer thalassophobia and for this reason shun sea destinations (a fortiori the islands, Sardinia included), but still not disdain idea of cooling off during hottest summer days, from Porto Rafael you can take a reinvigorating excursion along paths and creeks of sweet waters. Over ninety waterways cross Sardinia, among which Tirso, Flumendosa, Coghinas, Cedrino and Taloro rivers.

With their nearly one hundred smaller brothers, they wind through hinterland, from where existence of sea seems almost like an invention that turns out to be real only when you approach mouth. Thalassophobics can stop earlier and enjoy forests, caves, churches and millennial refuges remained intact over time, being carried away by water flowing in the most tumultuous or peaceful river beds, which tirelessly bathes fragments of identical but dissimilar cultures and traditions; close as the crow flies, yet pristine, intact, united by a contradictory kinship bond, suspicious and generous at the same time, Sardinian people's typical states of mind.

Less impetuous, but objectively safer for sea hypochondriacs, are the many natural thermal pools , in which relax and admire archaic landscapes, such as those of Bultei and Benetutti , wrapped in a spectacular natural setting; among best known and most popular Fordongianus baths , a Roman-era establishment among beautiful archaeological sites. On the way from Bultei to Fordongianus, you can reach Casteldoria , where water's vapor gave birth in the past to fascinating legends about witches and ghosts. In Dorgali also thermal baths of Su Anzu . Remaining on desalination, the only natural lake in Sardinia is Baratz , putative father of the thirty eight artificial reservoirs of the island, whose total volume amounts to 1.6 billion cubic meters of water.

Among these placid foster children, Liscia lake - located between the municipalities of Sant'Antonio di Gallura, Luras, Arzachena, Calangianus and Luogosanto - is the most convenient loophole for salt water detractors. Reachable and navigable from the many river's inlets, we suggest to escort the bravest blindfolded to canoes at Porto Pollo beach, few minutes by car from Porto Rafael. After first paddles, once regained eyesight, your breathing and mood will calm down, perhaps in front of a flamingo resting among reeds, or of a purple heron flying over the boat. For those who prefer less strong emotions, Sardinia is dotted with suggestive waterfalls, springs and streams that plunge among the rocks with breathtaking visions.

A crime not naming San Valentino Sadali waterfall, one of the most beautiful villages on the island, at the gates of Seulo Barbagia; Sa Stiddiosa waterfall in Seulo, a corner of paradise along Flumendosa river; Su Stampu 'e su Turrunu in Sadali, in the heart of Addolì forest, between Barbagia and Ogliastra; Capo Nieddu waterfall in Cuglieri, where Rio Salighes stream plunges forty meters into the sea; Is Corropus waterfall in Gergei... and many others.

But if it still costs you too much stress, Villa Aidan's splendid swimming pool in Porto Rafael is sixteen meters , and the only salt around is kept in the kitchen jar.

Feel safe enough?

Dining out in Porto Rafael

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 07:15:29 GMT

Dining out in Porto Rafael

(and managing your personal chef's stress)

Dining out in Porto Rafael is a pleasant alternative to staying at home, from where it's really hard to move. Some addresses, however, are good for giving your private chef a day off, as long as he doesn't take it personally. Private chefs in Porto Rafael end up becoming family members, as well as a pragmatic solution that frees you from household chores. The private dimension is so intimate that private chefs anticipate your tastes and desires. They mix ingredients taken by traditional cuisine with typical flavors, adding a personal touch which is their special signature.

There are those stealing spices from overseas cuisine for a spicy shrimp curry with turmeric pilaf rice; those proposing malloreddus alla Campidanese with sliced of bread alongside for cleaning the pot ; chefs specialized in fish recipes, with cherry tomatoes, olives and bay leaves; some others inspired by nature, adding at dishes an olive branch, a stone, a flower, only for the pleasure of your eyes.

In the village we point out Yacht Club, a suggestive niche of sea with boats around sweetly moved by the wind, where Ottavio and his daughters serve appetizers and the freshest fish. Note also Boutique Hotel Solaz , where once was Rafael's historic casita, still with its famous motto outside, which has become Porto Rafael's inspiration. Delicious appetizers in front of the bay, and dinners.

Few steps after you meet Solaz , a wine bar with a sophisticated list, a lively meeting point for those who like to drink well and spend good time observing comings and goings around in the square.
Going up at Santa Rita church, stop at historic Harry's Bar , atmosphere between past and future recreated by owners Aldo and Diego. Furnishing and colors inspired by vintage pictures , to feel Porto Rafael original style. Excellent raw materials, from breakfast until after dinner.

Gastronomic dream continues in Palau, where La Gritta restaurant offers the best of traditional cuisine, simple and refined. In a location of extreme charm, Simona and Roberto, afford also to serve garlic and oil linguine, or timeless tomato sauce spaghetti, a provocation that alone deserves a booking.
Aglio e Olio and C’era una volta restaurants are a good solution for tasting genuine flavors and hospitality. At the port, a happy example of innovative cooking: O ’Belau , a name that in Indonesian means island, which seems also the exotic declination of Palau. It is still the only mediterranean restaurant and sushi bar in town, traditional cuisine with oriental influences, first choice products.
For eating pieds dans l'eau in a simple and unpretentious way, move to Porto Pollo, at Ristorantino , while one of the best pizzas near is at Maestrale , where dining in front of sunset. Stop for tasting local wines and appetizers at Cantina Surrau , in Chilvagghja area.

The traditional roast suckling pig at La Ciminea , Lu Ciaccaru area, and even at Agriturismo La Colti , Canniggione area, where guests are welcomed by a battery of crispy and hot suckling pigs on a spit with small side dishes.

Porto Rafael the other Coast

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 23:46:26 GMT

Porto Rafael: the Other Coast

Even today, many identify Sardinia with its most famous destinations, considered symbols of success and good life. Not going too far, Porto Cervo and its coast keep gathering uninterrupted consensus, which in the long run made it similar to many elite destinations , submitted with luxury's globalization. If it were not for different landscape details, today it is almost impossible to understand where we are spending a holiday. Wherever far we go, the sad surprise is precipitating in a big mall, or in the hall of a seven, eight, one hundred stars hotel, but identical to a thousand others, with a string of boutiques, jewelereries and shops that can be found everywhere.

Undisputed destination for the most demanding holidaymakers - thanks to the natural wonders that prompted Prince Aga Khan IV to elect it as a retreat for the international jet set at the beginning of the 60s - even this part of Sardinia today pays the price of its fame with a currency that has devalued , becoming almost voyeuristic, with a screamed exclusivity within everyone's reach. Groups of tourists lined up in front of the famous people boats, for a selfie with celebrities of the moment, describe such a lac of style.

Even Porto Rafael was born in the early 60s , by inspiration of a Spanish nobleman, Count Rafael Neville. He knew Aga Khan - they usually met in social events -, he knew his ambitions, and he certainly cannot compete with his financial resources. While Aga Khan lays foundations of a gigantic real estate dream, involving a staff of international architects with whom founding Porto Cervo and building a large harbor with luxurious hotels and social hangouts, Rafael arranges his cozy settlement as if it is the wing of a family building , guaranteing comforts and discretion to his guests, a stylistic footprint still inimitable. What initially appeared only a modest response to the grandiose visions of his princely antagonist, in just over 60 years is proving to be the only sustainable and most selective touristic intuition of the area, surviving to time and its inevitable fall . In the suggestive Marina of Porto Rafael you will never see people in line, if not guests of a party on board, ready to sail to some hidden cove or to Corsica, where stop for the night. If you wake up early in the morning you can have breakfast at Ottavio’s with some men of the crews moored in the Marina, and you will find some excellent freshly baked croissants. You will always be protected by anonymity, respecting your freedom and privacy.

When reading newspapers, you won't find any mention of Porto Rafael, not even indiscretions on you. At most, at a dinner party, someone may say having seen your property on an exclusive interiors design magazine: it will probably be the only gossip involving you during summer, and people will forget it already before dessert. If by chance you forgot to put something in your suitcase before leaving , you have enchanting shops around, where you may find sea clothing or elegant objects for your home. On Friday, at Palau's market , you’ll go back in time and relive your youthly vacations, haggling on the price of beach shirts or cashmere occasions well hidden.

Fill up on fruit and vegetables, cheese, honey and typical sweets, then have a coffee break in the slightly sleepy rhythm of a seaside town, that runs towards future without believing in it too much. After a day spent under the sun in one of its beautiful beaches, at sunset Porto Rafael offers you an appetizer in the Piazzetta with friends or a candlelit dinner pieds dans l'eau, and the crowd around you will be a starry night with a magnificent moon. On the way back home you will not find cars parked in double rows with arrows lit in front of a disco, it's easier that a turtle or a porcupine cut your road.
The owner of the food store will call you by name during all summer, as if you were a relative, and she will ask you to take a picture before you leave because she's keen on you even if she doesn't know who you are. And if you are nobody, Rafael will still invite you to party with him all night long. He'll let you go to bed only by promising him you will pursue your dream too, before you realize you are talking to yourself, while a small fox follows you from afar.

What to do in Porto Rafael

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 21:26:55 GMT

What to do in Porto Rafael

To those who wonder what to do in Porto Rafael, the answer can be: nothing . Waking up here in the morning, opening the eyes with sun rising, which slowly warms amazing panorama of Maddalena Arcipelago, with few boats plowing the sea from afar; turning the gaze on granite rocks sculpted by water and wind, which emerge as prehistoric animals inside Mediterranean scrub; maybe drinking the first coffee of the day, while seated silently under a pergola… can be more than enough..

If you cannot resist the call of the place, the promise of sensory surprises that nature around whispers in your ears, you will discover that from its protected and privileged position, Porto Rafael embraces in its surroundings kilometers of beaches that wind along the coast. Among them enchanting Cala Trana , enclosed between two large rocky promontories - Delfini and Punta Don Diego -, protected at its back by sand dunes and Mediterranean scrub. Cala Trana is about 3 kilometers from famous bay of Porto Pollo , known as Isola dei Gabbiani and as paradise for kitesurfers and windsurfers coming from all Europe. Agonists or beginners, they perform on the same water stage, rising in flight with jumps defying gravity law, each with own solitary choreography, but all united like a flock of giant birds twirling synchronously.

Leaving Porto Pollo and the coast by sea, you start meeting the wonders of Maddalena Arcipelago made of pink granite islands - Spargi, Budelli, Razzoli, Caprera, Maddalena, Santo Stefano -, which extends from Porto Rafael to Corsica, the last hiking stop in the island. Arcipelago’s beaches, which can be easily reached by boat, are known all over the world for their fine pink and white sand, which is under important precautionary measures for its protection since years.

We do not pursue describing Arcipelago here, and let these places the chance to reveal themselves approaching them by sea, a unique, powerful experience, able to change the destiny of sensitivest, or more simply of dreamers.

On pink Budelli beach lived isolated from the world unforgettable Mauro , once heading to Polynesia and stumbled upon there by chance after a breakdown while sailing with some friends. One and only inhabitant of the island, for over thirty years his wooden house on the sea was an obligatory stop for tourists and onlookers, fascinated by his extreme existential choice and by the way he safeguarded the ecosystem of the place.

People say he left Budelli for a love affair, but actually he was only tired of all attacks received over the years by those who accused him of expropriation, of living unhealthly, of not being a local islander and much more.

On the contrary, we must hope that Budelli beach remains also in the future the enchanted paradise corner Mauro took care and loved with such passion, leaving us an example of self-denial unrepeatable over time. Thank you, brave man.

Porto Rafael, the dream

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:25:39 GMT

Porto Rafael, the dream

Few places in the world offer at a glance a naturalistic vision of such strength and intensity, the one that in the 60s, after a vision had in dream, pushed Rafael Neville, Count of Berlanga, to build here the village bearing his name. Even Italian writer Guido Piovene, noble as Rafael, novelist and journalist author of famous "Journey to Italy", in the same years wrote: "The strange is that such a country of rocks, instead of giving a sensation of real, seems made by impalpable material of imagination", confirming a suggestion that Sardinia evoks in many, certainly in most sensitive souls. After all, what do dreams look like, if not imagination? Porto Rafael born from a dreamlike inspiration is entirely credible, given its enchanted atmosphere and the particularity of its history. Holiday destination for show biz personalities, artists, industrialists and nobles from all over the world, it still maintains the visionary and aristocratic spirit of its founder, guaranteeing guests exclusivity and discretion in a landscape setting of rare beauty.

Rafael, son of a producer of Charlie Chaplin most famos movies, landed in Sardinia in the mid-60s, more or less in the same period in which Aga Khan began constructing Costa Smeralda. One of the most famous entertainers of the parties held by VIPs in this corner of the island, where for years the jet set met, moreover for buying summer residences. Eclectic, outgoing, ready for any adventure, at his birthday parties, Rafael opened his villa inviting hundreds people in the Piazzetta. Common boys and girls, in holiday between Santa Teresa di Gallura and Palau, found themselves toasting with Marquise Dufferin and Ava, or served of pasta by a descendant of the House of Savoy. The chronicles of the time report the presence of celebrities such as Shirley Douglas, Philippa Davenport, Harvey and Mary Rose Renton, countess Be Larisch, Alessandra of Kent with her husband Angus Ogilvy, the Hon.

Peter Ward son of the Earl of Dudley, Sir Alan Chobham, "Merrie" Andrew, Gilda Bujalski, Lady Cadogan, Billie Hamilton, Alfonso of Savoy with his wife Sveva Colonna, Maria Visconti sister of director Luchino, the Crespi family, Leslie Caron and many others also more recent, which deliberately escape this list because of privacy.

Rafael had the ability to amalgamate most heterogeneous backgrounds, without rhetoric or paternalism. Surrounded by his disparate guests, he probably felt strengthened his deepest ideals, a sense of human brotherhood typical of stateless souls, with great visions. Maybe those parties corresponded to a Rafael’s new dream, that was seeing sooner or later a fair world, with no inequalities, welcoming each individual uniqueness and beauty. We imagine that during parties Rafael sometimes moves to the litte beach observing from far his guests dressed in white, while laughing and talking together.

Touched by melancholy thoughts, Rafael pushes them away, since he probably cannot share them with anyone. In those minutes perhaps he feels lonely, with a lack of strength, maybe even doubting of his own motto “Dreaming is living” . Then someone perhaps notices him hidden in the night and calls him loudly, asking to join the others. Rafael suddenly smiles, tearing darkness with a newfound good humor, and as an old ruler called to his responsibilities, he starts dancing until morning, promising happiness to everybody.

Porto Rafael, travel notes

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 19:52:57 GMT

Porto Rafael, travel notes

A few suggestions to explore the area a bit or take part in the most characteristic events of Porto Rafael: don't miss.

Capo Testa, peninsula of the island.
The beauty of Porto Rafael beaches is certainly competing for primacy with an unmissable land itinerary towards Capo Testa, the small peninsula located in the north of Sardinia, a few kilometers from Santa Teresa di Gallura, overlooking Bocche di Bonifacio. Connected to mainland by a narrow isthmus, along which lay two beaches, promontory is made up of typical granite rocks of Gallura, with their touching ancestral architecture. Capo Testa is a site of community interest and it is included in the system of areas dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity. On its promontory there’s the most important lighthouse for navigation in the northern area of Sardinia. Active since 1845, it is a fantastic observation point on the cliffs below and on Corsica. Among the beaches of Capo Testa, the famous Valle della Luna, name attributed to Cala Grande in the 1960s, when a community of hippies chose it as a symbolic destination of counterculture values of the times, and which today it is still considered a place of peaceful transgression.

Talmone Military Battery, a jewel of FAI.
For two hundred years, Talmone Military Battery has overseen the stretch of sea that separates island of Spargi from Sardinia in a landscape made of epic granites, sea and Mediterranean flora. Important testimony of military history of our country and hard daily life of soldiers, after years of neglect, in 2002, it was entrusted by Sardinia Region to FAI for a careful and demanding restoration, which nowadays guarantees its opening to public. The battery, perfectly integrated into the Mediterranean scrub, can be reached by a suggestive path among aromas of juniper, mastic tree and myrtle.

Capo d’Orso, the stone zoo.
A halo of legend with roots even in Odyssey encircles Capo d'Orso, the promontory in front of Arcipelago della Maddalena Park, which takes its name from a spectacular rocky sculpture resembling the shape of a bear, pointing sea with his head. It is Capo d’Orso, a natural monument that stands on a granite rise above 120 meters in height. The sculpture has always been a reference for sailors who ventured off the coast of Gallura and Bocche di Bonifacio, clearly visible from sea and mentioned in portolan charts. Today it is an unmissable destination for thousands of tourists fascinated by its ancient evocative power.

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Porto Rafael b.C..

The Nuraghi, center of social life in ancient Sardinia, dating back to around the second millennium bC, are today recognized as World Heritage of Humanity. Rests of these settlements can also be found near Porto Rafael: Barrabisa nuraghe, Lu Brandali nuragic complex (Santa Teresa Gallura) and La Prisgiona (Arzachena). In the area you can also visit some Tombs of Giants, the closest is Li Mazzini (Palau), known for its legendary healing powers. Do invest some time around Nuragic traces in Sardinia even moving from the geographical area of Porto Rafael: it can be a very interesting itinerary, which allows to experience an aspect of the island full of emotional surprises.

Trip to Bonifacio
From Porto Rafael it is easy to embark to the Corsican small town, built around a deep inlet similar to a fjord surrounded by white limestone walls, for a day tour visit in which being fascinated by its astonishing cliffs over the sea. Connections between the two islands are many, and tourists can also use the ferries in continuous transit to and from Santa Teresa.

Mario Formenton Trophy, the man with the sea in his eyes

The sailing trophy dedicated to Mario Formenton, the businessman who passed away in 1987 and who elected Porto Rafael as buen retiro, where the family still spends holidays in the property villa, needs no introduction. Formenton formed very young in Mondadori Publishing where in1982 he became President and CEO: few know that during his exemplary career he was also awarded by "Achille Marazza Award" for human relations in the workplace, a recognition that symbolically confers also in Porto Rafael a moral position of excellence. Biennial regatta, it is a festive event where owners and sailors may experience a day among the islands of the Arcipelago, under the gaze of a audience distributed from afar in the gardens and in the villas around the sea.

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Tik Tok, c’mon!

Tik Tok, c’mon!

Porto Rafael Shire

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Sardinian spoken

Sardinian spoken ﻿

One's head in the clouds

One's head in the clouds

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Not only salt

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Dining out in Porto Rafael

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What to do in Porto Rafael

What to do in Porto Rafael

Porto Rafael, the dream

Porto Rafael, the dream

Porto Rafael, travel notes

Porto Rafael, travel notes

A few suggestions to explore the area a bit or take part in the most characteristic events of Porto Rafael: don't miss.

Sardinian spoken