Cagliari

Travel Guide Europe Italy Sardinia Cagliari

Introduction

Cagliari

Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia, an Italian island, in between Italy and Spain. It is located along the south coast of the island and the city itself has about 160,000 inhabitants, the larger urban area around half a million. Although part of the city is relatively modern with many newly built hotels, the old part of the city (called castello, meaning castle) is much more beautiful, with views of the Mediterranean Sea as well.

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Neighbourhoods

Torre delle Stelle

Torre delle Stelle lies on a hill surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, on Cagliari Gulf. It is 30 kilometres from Cagliari along the coastal road to Villasimius, on the southeast coast of Sardinia. Part of Maracalagonis and Sinnai municipalities, Torre delle Stelle is an unique place to relax and enjoy the nature and the sea. The two local beaches, Genn'e Mari and Cann'e Sisa, are two nice white sandy beaches with crystal and shallow water.

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Sights and Activities

Castello

Castello is an old district surrounded by a fortified structure. It was build on a high hill for defense purpose. It was founded by Pisans in 13th century. Later it was expanded by Aragonese, Spanish, and Piedmontese. Since it has been constructed, Castello was a location of Sardinian authorities. It stayed this way up to today. If you are looking for souvenirs from your holidays this is the place to go. There is a lot of small shops in Castello. You can easily find here some nice art and antiques done by local artists. The most of buildings in this area come from baroque and neoclassical architecture periods.

Marina

South from Castello is the Marina district, which is the port area of Cagliari. There are plenty of restaurants and bars in this part of the city. Restaurants vary from small fast-foods to and expensive places serving luxurious dishes. Everyone can find here something for their taste and pocket. Since the port is located here, Marina was always a trading district of Cagliari, so it is also worth to visit it for shopping if You are looking to buy some local goods.

Other Sights and Activities

Cathedral
The palace of the Provincial Government
Sardinian Archaeological Museum
Basilica di San Saturnino
Chiesa della Purissima - a church from the 16th century.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria

Molentargius Regional Park and the Salt-pans

The Molentargius Regional Park and the Salt-pans consist of the arid plain of Is Arenas, the fresh water basins and ponds of Perdalonga and Bellarosa Minore, the saltwater basins of Bellarosa Maggiore and Quartu pond. It is possible to make some intersting escursions by boat and admire the many species of birds such as the Pink Flamingo.

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Weather

Cagliari has a typical Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry and sunny summers but mild and wetter winters, though during recent years drought has become a bigger problem. Temperatures in summer (June - September) are generally around 30 °C to 32 °C degrees Celsius during the day and still warm at night, with 20 °C on average but sometimes hardly dropping below 25 °C. During heat waves, temperatures here can rise to 40 °C or even a bit more. Winters from December to February are mild with daytime temperatures of around 14 °C to 16 °C and nights still well above 5 °C on average. This is also the time when most of the rain falls though occasionally summers can have a few rainshowers as well.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Avg Max	14.2 °C	14.7 °C	16.1 °C	18.4 °C	22.3 °C	26.6 °C	29.6 °C	29.8 °C	26.9 °C	22.8 °C	18.2 °C	15.1 °C
Avg Min	5.7 °C	6.2 °C	7.2 °C	9.1 °C	12.3 °C	16.1 °C	18.6 °C	19.1 °C	17 °C	13.7 °C	9.5 °C	6.8 °C
Rainfall	45.8 mm	57.1 mm	44.1 mm	37.1 mm	23.9 mm	9.2 mm	3.2 mm	8.5 mm	30.6 mm	55.6 mm	56 mm	55.3 mm
Rain Days	7.9	7.6	7.1	5.9	3.6	1.6	0.5	1.2	3.8	6.3	8.3	8.4

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Getting There

By Plane

Cagliari-Elmas Airport (CAG) offers a growing number of flights throughout Europe, especially with lowcost airlines. Ryanair has flights to/from Basel, Brescia, Bristol, Brussels-Charleroi, Edinburgh, Genoa, Girona, Frankfurt-Hahn, Karlsruhe, Madrid, Manchester, Marseille, Milan/Bergamo-Orio al Serio, Paris-Beauvais, Pescara, Pisa, Rome-Ciampino, Seville, Trieste, Valencia, Venice-Treviso and Weeze (near Düsseldorf). Meridiana has quite a few domestic flights and flights to Paris as well. Other airlines go to Geneva, Munich, Zürich and Oslo, among a few other places.

By Train

Trains go to Iglesias and Carbonia, Olbia and Golfo Aranci and to Sassari and Porto Torres.

By Car

Highways lead to Sassari - Porto Torres (SS131/E35) and Olbia (SS131).

By Bus

ARST has buses to many destinations throughout Sardinia, including Oristano, Nuoro, Sassari, Iglesias and further away.

By Boat

DiMaio Lines between Naples and Cagliari.
Tirrenia Ferries between Naples and Cagliari.
Tirrenia Ferries between Genoa and Cagliari.
Tirrenia Ferries between Civitavecchia (port of Rome) and Cagliari.
Tirrenia Ferries between Cagliari and Palermo.
Tirrenia Ferries between Cagliari and Trapani.

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Sleep

Upscale

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Keep Connected

Internet

Almost all towns and cities in Italy have internet cafes. A growing number of budget hostels and nicer hotels have free Wifi. By law all public-access internet points must keep records of web sites viewed by customers, and even the customer's ID: expect to be refused access if you don't provide identification. Hotels providing Internet access are not required to record IDs if the connection is provided in the guest's room, although if the connection is offered in the main public hall then IDs are required. Publicly available wireless access without user identification is illegal, so open Wi-Fi hotspots (like the ones you might expect to find in a mall or cafée) all have some form of (generally one-time) registration.

Phone

Post

Post Italiane is the national postal services of Italy and has quite an efficient network of postal offices and reliable postal services. Standard letters and postcards (up to 20 grams) cost €0.39 to send within Europe and the Mediterranean countries outside Europe and €0.41 to all other destinations throughout the country. Up to 50 grams, prices start at €0.52 for Europe, €0.62 for other areas. Packages start at €1.55 within Europe, and around €2.50 for other countries. Post office business hours in Italy are from 8:30am to 2:00pm from Monday to Friday, with closing times at Saturday and the last day of the month at 12 noon. In general, larger post offices in bigger cities and in tourist areas keep longer hours than those in local towns. Also note that business hours in the south might be different than the north, with longer hours at night, especially in summer! If you want to send packages you might try faster and more reliable/efficient private courier companies like TNT, UPS or DHL.

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