Castelsardo was another city where it was impossible to find a reasonably priced accommodation with parking close to the historic center, so we found ourselves another pretty villa in the seaside resort town of Lu Bagnu just a ten minute drive away. It was a very modern building that had either just been constructed or completely renovated, with sweeping views over the surrounding countryside. The lower level apartment was very drab on the inside but that didn't bother us much as we weren't planning to do anything at the villa besides sleep. Once we had collected our keys and dropped off our bags we immediately took off for Castelsardo.
Like Cagliari and Bosa, Castelsardo grew around a castle that was constructed in a location that was carefully chosen for its topographic advantages. The promontory with its tall hill is virtually perfect for castle defense. Aggressors would have to surmount the southern slope of the hill while completely vulnerable to counterattack and then scale the steep ridge and the castle wall. Meanwhile the flat, gently downsloping seaward side of the hill accommodates a sizable population to provide support for the nobility. It is easy to see why the Genoese House of Doria established their Sardinian foothold here in the twelfth century. Our approach on the road from Lu Bagnu provided the classic view of the hillside section of the historic center topped by the remnants of the castle wall. Behind the wall, the ancient Cittadella was hardly visible.
Parking in the historic center of Castelsardo was a brutal task. There was only one main road ascending the hill with minimal public parking alongside it. We didn't dare try any of the side streets, knowing the risks of ending up in an impassable corner or dead end. I searched online for a public parking garage and found nothing. We got all the way up to the castle walls and then reversed direction, finally spotting a car pulling out of a spot on a side street. I raced to the spot before anyone could get there and wedged the car in with the invaluable assistance of the array of cameras. I had reserved us a table at L'Imperfetto which was a short walk uphill from where we parked. I navigated towards the restaurant while keeping a watchful eye on the three kids to make sure they didn't stray off the sidewalk. I saw the huge pile of fresh dog waste directly in Spenser's path seconds before he reached it. "Spenser, stop moving!" I commanded. He ignored me and tromped right into the center of it. Kids have a way of rendering all of a parent's best efforts futile. Several minutes of footwear scraping on the sidewalk ensued. Once he was about ninety percent de-fecalized we proceeded to the restaurant where we were seated on an outdoor platform the owners had constructed across the seat from the restaurant. L'Imperfetto had good but mixed reviews, mostly related to the service, but we had an excellent seafood dinner and had no complaints about the service. A couple of standouts were the sauteed squid on broccoli puree and a buckwheat pasta with shrimp crudo. There was no question it was the best dinner of our trip thus far, particularly due to the creativity of the kitchen. 
After dinner we climbed the stairs through the concentric streets that ran transversely across the hillside. Some geomteric designs had been painted on the stairs in green and orange. The walls of the castle loomed above us while the buildings on the hillside appeared purplish in the gathering dusk.
The castle wall had been built atop a natural rocky outcropping. It had typical medieval stone construction but the smoothness of the edges suggested an ongoing process of maintenance and renovation. At the hairpin turn of the road that passed below the castle an immaculate little wine bar offered perfect views over the harbor and the Colle di Frigiano neighborhood to the south.
We weren't in the mood to sit at the cafe but we found an unobtrusive spot on the terrace to admire the evening views. The colors of sunset layered on the horizon of the sea as the moon hung like a pearl in the center of a deep blue sky. After enjoying this quintessential Mediterranean atmosphere for a few minutes we decided to return to the car and tackle the Cittadella the next day..
Tuesday morning we began our final day in Sardinia with a drive back to the hill of Castelsardo. It was much simpler to find a parking spot on the main road this time. We climbed back up to the wall again and this time followed the hairpin loop in the road until it brought us through a gap into Cittadella. We were now in the narrow streets of the medieval city of Castelsardo, in many ways unchanged from its original form.
The views from Piazza Bastione in Cittadella weren't all that much different from what we had seen the previous night, except for being a little higher and less obstructed by rooftops. Waves lapped against a steep embankment on the eastern side of the promontory.
We'd given the kids a couple of snacks before we packed the car in Lu Bagnu but it wasn't anything resembling a proper breakfast. I was a little dubious about the prospects of finding anything substantial in the subdued alleys of Cittadella in that early hour but we kept our eyes out as we wound through the labyrinth. I was shocked when we came across a lovely little restaurant called Il Portico with outdoor tables that were set for prospective customers. An elderly waitress who was likely the owner directed us to a table, where we breakfasted on crunchy carasau bread and panini. During our meal I shuffled the kids inside one by one for their bathroom visits. The interior was filled with artwork and had a beautiful bar area with an impressive array of liqueurs. It was probably the place to be in the evening in Cittadella.
After breakfast we continued north into Cittadella in the direction of the sea. The incline had now reversed and we were going down some shallow staircases. Eventually we reached the distinctive campanile of the Cathedral of sant’Antonio Abate just inside the seaward wall of the city. The campanile was once a watchtower within the castle walls but was repurposed as a belltower for the cathedral. A staircase led downward to the shore but we had neither the time nor the inclination to descend. Looking west across the sea we could see the distant outline of the uninhabited island of Asinara on the horizon. 
About one block before we reached the car it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten to pay for parking with the EasyPark app. We had only been there for a couple of hours, but sure enough there was a ticket under the windshield wiper. The painful part wasn't the twenty-tive euro fine, but knowing we would be subjected to whatever extortionate convenience fee the leasing company decided to charge us. I drove away from Castelsardo in a foul mood, figuring that we could read the fine print on the ticket and pay our fine online while we were on line for the ferry to Corsica. The ferry departed from Santa Teresa Gallura, a small town at the northern tip of Sardinia a little more than an hour away. We arrived there with a couple of hours to spare before our boat departed and decided to look around the town and have a decent lunch. We found a parking spot in the town center on a gently upsloping street with pastel-colored houses that were reminiscent of a modern version of Bosa.
We walked uphill a couple of blocks through this residential grid and soon found ourselves in a busy commercial area of restaurants and boutiques. The the center of all this activity was a large open square called Piazza Vittorio Emanuele I which was surrounded by outdoor cafes and travel agencies. I was surprised this little town had turned out to be so lively but between the seaside resorts and the people coming for the frequent Corsica ferries it made sense. We had now almost completely circumnavigated Sardinia since our arrival a week earlier, being just a half hour drive from the town of Arzachena we had visited on the same day.
At the northern end of the town there was a panoramic terrace called Rosa dei Venti, the Italian term for the compass rose used by sailors and cartographers to indicate wind directions and navigate the seas. There was a double meaning here for the word "venti" as the wind on the terrace was so strong that the kids were able to use it to support most of their body weight. The terrace looked out on a small promontory where there was a hill topped by the Longonsardo tower, built by the Aragonese in the sixteenth century as part of the defensive fortifications against pirates. Beyond that was the sea and the outline of the Corsican coast, just five miles away. 
The best restaurant I could find wasn't in the heavily touristed area but further back in the town close to where we had parked. I wanted to make sure we were leaving Sardinia on a high note and PeMa Ristorante delivered with some creative and well-presented seafood dishes.
After lunch was done we were right on time to line up for the ferry. I thought an hour in advance would be reasonable but we were the first car to arrive. This was a good opportunity to figure out how to pay the parking fine, but the fine print on the ticket was inscrutable and I quickly got frustrated searching for a website where I could pay with credit card. I realized the smart thing to have done would have been to find a post office in Castelsardo and taken care of it in person. Mei Ling had seen some government office just before we arrived at the departure point and decided to run over there to see if she could pay in person while I kept trying to do it online. I wasn't thrilled about being first in line to board without my wife in the car but she was determined and was out of sight before I had a chance to object. Minutes ticked by and I saw the officials at the gates stirring and getting their equipment ready to check people in. I started calling Mei Ling but of course she didn't answer. Just as I was preparing to explain to the guy approaching my car that we were missing someone in our party she opened the door and jumped back into the passenger seat triumphantly. There hadn't been any way to pay cash at that office and the person at the desk told her we needed to have some kind of account to pay the ticket online. My ever-resourceful wife offered to reimburse him with cash plus a few extra euros if he paid the fine for us which he proceeded to do. Thankfully I could now cross that issue off the list of things I had to worry about. Soon we were on the ferry and the Sardinian coast line was receding behind us.
If Rome had been the prologue of this meticulously composed travel project, Sardinia had been a masterful first chapter. Although it felt as though we had already completed a full journey we were somehow just a quarter of the way through. I had worried that one week would not be enough to appreciate this large and mysterious island but now that we had come full circle I felt we had done an excellent job crafting and executing our itinerary. I would certainly be happy to return some day for a deeper exploration of places like Cagliari and Sassari but if we never find the time then I'm satisfied with the knowledge and experience that I gained. Now it was time to turn our attention to a similarly large and unknown (to us) island with a completely different history and culture.
This featured blog entry was written by zzlangerhans from the blog Fledgling Explorers.
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