Travel guide

The mountains, the plains,
the Rivers, the Coast
Sardinia is an island of the Western Mediterranean Basin, larger than
Corsica and second in size only to Sicily, and surrounded by the Tyrrhenian
and Sardinian Seas. Inland its territory is predominantly hilly and
mountainous, with a group of massifs amongst which is the Gennargentu,
peaking at Punta La Marmora. However, the average altitude of the Island
is overall low. In the western part, the wide plains of the Campidani divide
the inland massifs from the mountainous group of the Iglesiente and
Sulcis. There are no major earthquake events with only seven in recorded
history, the oldest of which was documented in Cagliari in 1616, whereas
the most recent in 1948. The geological history of Sardinia began in the
Cambrian. Indeed, Cambrian sandstones form the backbone of the Sulcis-
Iglesiente, together with its mining fields. These sedimentary rocks are
followed in the Carboniferous by volcanic ones, an indication of the
mighty eruptions of those times. Later, as a result of orogenesis the Island
emerged in all of its extension, was then flooded again by the sea in the
Eocene, and eventually achieved its current morphology starting from the
Lower Pliocene. The lithologic structure consists mainly of metamorphic
rocks (gneiss, schist), which form the foundation over which rest all the
other formations of the Island: volcanic rocks, both intrusive (granite) and
effusive (andesite, basalt), and sedimentary rocks (limestone, sandstone),
which originated as a result of flooding events. The morphology is far from
being monotonous, as each geologic epoch has modelled quite different
landscapes. Thus, the granitic mountains of Gallura have craggy contours
and are on average low, except for Mount Limbara (reaching 1362
metres), with its typical pinnacles and spikes so evocative in the Aggius
chain overlooking the valley of Tempio. South of the Gallura region, the
granite becomes more predominantly mountainous, with wide ridges
increasing in altitude towards the peaks of Barbagia, with the tacchi and
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