Cagliari
Capital Of Sardinia, With The Pisan Walled Castello Quarter Above The Port, The National Archaeological Museum Holding The Mont'E Prama Giants, And The Molentargius Flamingo Lagoon Inside The City · Cagliari, Sardinia
Sardinia's capital, built up a limestone hill above its own port, with a walled quarter on top called Castello that the Pisans fortified in the thirteenth century and that still has two of its white towers standing at the gates. From the bastion terrace you look down over the whole city, the salt lagoons behind it and the Gulf of Angels. What makes Cagliari odd among Italian capitals is what is inside the city limits: a genuine wetland where several thousand greater flamingos nest, a Roman amphitheatre cut into living rock, and eight kilometres of white sand at Poetto, reachable by city bus. The archaeological museum holds the giants of Mont'e Prama, stone figures over two metres tall found in pieces in the 1970s and painstakingly rebuilt, which are the oldest monumental statues in the western Mediterranean. It is cheap, it is warm in February, and hardly anyone flies here for it, which makes it the cheapest way into Sardinia by a wide margin.
Piazza Palazzo, Cagliari, Sardinia, 09124, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: the Bastione terrace, Castello's streets, Poetto and the lagoon paths are public and never close. The archaeological museum keeps state-museum hours with a weekly closing day and is on the free first Sunday scheme. The towers keep municipal hours, shorter in winter, and close in high wind. The Roman amphitheatre has restricted and periodically suspended access for conservation. The cathedral opens daily with a midday interval. Confirm the amphitheatre before counting on it.