Sardinia … an incredible location to visit.. Remains of literally thousands of these stone towers scatter throughout Sardinia, most in complete ruin, but this is the best preserved and most complete. It is also the closest major one to Cagliari, and the best interpreted, with 30-minute tours and English-speaking guides. If you can see only one, see this one, which UNESCO cited as one of the best restorations anywhere in the Mediterranean. Timber found in the walls of the central tower was carbon dated to 1,500 BC, and the outer towers were built in the 11th or 12th century BC. You can go inside the tower, climbing to its upper reaches for a close-up view of the stacked dome made of dry stones without mortar. Spiral stairways inside its 1.8-meter walls connect the three stories, and as you climb through the passageways, you can appreciate the finesse of the engineering and workmanship these prehistoric people achieved. After exploring the towers and the foundations of the ancient village surrounding it, be sure to stop in the Casa Zapata Museum, in the village, where – along with other fascinating exhibits – you can see another nuraghe that has been excavated under the building. Here you get a birds-eye view of the construction from a walkway above the walls.

The Giara, located in the center-east of Sardinia, hosts a rare herd existing in Italy and in Europe of little wild horses and a park with cork oaks forests and Mediterranean maquis. This area is well known also for its archaeological monuments such as the famous Barumini nuraghe, so called “Su Nuraxi” declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The nuraghes are defensive towers to be found throughout the island, marked by their truncated cone shape and built with great blocks of roughly hewn stone, using the dry-stone technique. The nuraghi are defensive towers found throughout the island and are marked by their truncated cone shape; they are constructed in huge stone blocks according to the dry stone technique. Read more about Luxury Holidays in Sardinia

Nuraghe are Bronze Age archeological structures that are scattered all over the island of Sardinia and are often surrounded with remnants of Nuragic villages. Two towns with well-preserved and curated ruins are Arzachena in the north near Olbia and Barumini in the south near Cagliari. This impressive rock formation, known in Italian as Capo d’Orso, is a short drive from Palau and has been an attraction since prehistoric times. It is an easy climb to the top, with spectacular 360 degree views over the archipelago of La Maddalena, Palau, and the the old military Forte di Capo d’Orso on offer.

If you rather see archaeological findings, instead of luxury yachts, that’s possible too. At Tharros, near Oristano in the west, or Nora, near Pula in the south, you can still see what the Romans have left behind two thousand years ago. Both sites are basically open-air museums, allowing you to literally wander through ancient Roman streets while seeing ruins, columns, and thermal baths. Both Tharros and Nora are located near the sea, which makes combining a visit with a dive in the sea a wonderful option.