Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
During the Bronze Age a dynamic society of warriors and traders developed on this rugged island, leaving behind them a staggering 7000 ‘Nuraghi’ - fortified round towers with associated villages. We also visit Megalithic, Phoenician and Roman sites and travel through beautiful countryside. The abundant and distinctive wildlife will delight botanists and bird watchers.
Until recently the importance of the island has been underestimated, partly because, one suspects, it was never colonised by the Greeks. Sardinia’s period of greatest prosperity and architectural splendour was BC, rather than AD. This was during the Bronze Age when a dynamic society of warriors and traders developed here, as shown by the presence of a staggering 7000 ‘Nuraghi’. The ruins of these splendid fortified round towers, some with outworks and associated villages, are a unique feature of the archaeology of Sardinia.
Sardinia has been popularly regarded as rather isolated, an impression encouraged by its rugged landscape and self-reliant islanders, who speak an obscure dialect and cling tenaciously to their customs and folklore. The archaeology tells another story, however, of rich prehistoric and classical cultures which were regularly in contact with other parts of the Mediterranean.
Together with the engaging bronze figurines - bronzetti - they provide an insight into an island society of intriguing complexity at an early date. We also visit earlier Megalithic sites, later Phoenician trading colonies and Roman cities as we traverse the island.
It is a wildly beautiful place - relatively poor and undeveloped except in pockets such as the busy capital of Cagliari, or the delightful Aragonese harbour town of Alghero.
