You don’t have to be a walker to benefit from a visit to Sardinia. You could very well come just to eat and eat and… Specialties includes horse, and this writer finds that commendable…

Partly due to lots of bad weather (primo April) more eating than walking was done on my trip, a plethora of information on where to try your best shot for that activity can be found in the usual guide books. I will just provide a list here of all the nice places I had dinner at night. In Cagliari: Ristorante Pizzeria da Fabio, Antica Hostaria, Ristorante Dal Conte, Trattoria Gennargentu. In Aritzo: Bar Pizzeria Ristorante S’Icriscione (a very friendly place, and not much more was open in early April).

Also, using walking guides written by Andreas Stieglitz is such a pleasure (see also The Azores) that it is really not much added information I can give to the walks either. But I can say that when the rain did leave, the spring green colours were totally unbelievable in sunshine. Still, maybe a little later in spring would be better with more consistent wheater, I would suggest early May.

My walks are all based on staying in the small mountain village of Aritzo, about 2h40 by bus from Cagliari (the nearest city with an airport). To get there, see bus routes under “More Info” below. Just be aware that the bus that passes Aritzo on its way to its end stop “Sorgono” can be marked “Sorgono” or “Desulo” or a combination of this based on how much confusion the driver would like to cause to (especially) non-Italian speaking visitors on that particular day. It is very important to know this, as there is only one bus per day!

Selected walks: For walks on Sardinia take a look in Landscapes of Sardinia by Andreas Stieglitz (referred to below as “/Stieglitz/”, and when I refer to walk numbers etc. from this book, the information is taken from the book’s 1st edition – also be sure to get the latest Updates) and Sardinia by Mithra Omidvar.

UPDATE: There is now a 3rd edition of /Stieglitz/ available, but I have not seen it, so I cannot comment on it.

•1 ARITZO – MONTE TEXILE – ARITZO (my total time 4h23, ends at my hotel, La Capannina, includes short stops for photography; +548m -514m, 3 laps): This is walk 13 in /Stieglitz/. No big problems en route, just read the text and the Updates (here refer to walk 14 as well, as this contains new relevant information, a part of that walk used in reverse in walk 12) carefully. However, the last two meters up the rock itself proved to risky because of being very wet and slippery from heavy rain the previous day. Also “60m” is more like “20m” on p.101.

•2 ARITZO – FLUMENDOSA – ARITZO (my total time 5h28, starts at the Hotel Moderno, ends at my hotel, La Capannina, includes short stops for photography; +956m -913m, 0 laps): This is walk 14 in /Stieglitz/. A truly great walk! Not as strenuous as the height difference might suggest, as it is always on good tracks. Partly even soft forest tracks. The title picture above is also from this walk. No problems en route, just read the text and the Updates carefully.

•3 ARITZO – BELVI – GERATZIA – ARITZO (my total time 2h36, includes short stops for photography; +-406m, 2 laps): This is walk 12 (short walk 1) in /Stieglitz/. No big problems en route, just read the text and the Updates carefully. I would like to add that the (now partly concrete) track encountered at “a house” just after the 2h45 point does not initially “climb slightly”. It does climb after a while, but at first it is almost level or even slightly descending!
• Good starting points: • Aritzo

• How to get there: • By air • By ferry from the mainland

• More info: • ARST – long distance bus timetables (in Italian only), absolutely necessary if you are going to get anywhere on this island