“The town of Cagliari offers to the view of those arriving from the sea an aspect pleasant and mighty, despite the white-yellowish colour of the limestone rock, and a kind of African aridity that gives it a particular character..”

(Alberto Della Marmora, Itinerary of the Island of Sardinia, 1860)

The Sardinian capital is divided into different neighbourhoods old and new  (164,249 inhabitants) is the largest city of Sardinia. About one thirdof the total one and a half million inhabitants on the Island live in its outskirts and in the communalities within its province. Cagliari is Located at the southernmost tip of the Campidano plain, at the centre of the namesake gulf and featuring important wetlands both in the east and in the west, Cagliari spreads along the coast and on its nine limestone hills. Some of these are of significant landscape and naturalistic value, such as Mount Urpinu (the hill of San Michele with its mediaeval castle) and the promontory of Capo Sant’Elia

To the east, you can visit the fantastic harbour known as Marina Piccola, located a short distance from the famous beach Poetto, in turn dominated by an imposing rock, the devils saddle Cagliari also has another small port,: Su Siccu, located almost opposite the Basilica of Bonaria the church the city of Buenos Aires is named after. 

The historic centre is the most interesting part of the city in particular  the famous fortified districtof Castello, the castle) lies on top of a hill with a wonderful view of the Gulf of Cagliari . Most of its city walls are intact, and feature the two 13th century white lime-stone towers, St. Pancras Tower and the Elephant Tower. The local white lime-stone was also used to build the walls of the city and many buildings. D. H. Lawrence, in his lively memoir of a voyage to Sardinia, Sea and Sardinia, undertaken in January 1921, described the effect of the warm Mediterranean sun-light on the white lime-stone city and compared Cagliari to a “white Jerusalem”. 

The other early districts of the town (Marina, Stampace, Villanova) retain much of their original appeal and still seem to function as distinct villages within the town.