CapoFREAKIN Testa

May 27

We started off the morning with a trip to La Pelosa beach. We were on the beach by 0900. This was a beautiful white sand beach with crystal blue and turquoise waters, it was only a five minute drive from the center of town. The only downside was that the beach was littered with golf-ball to tennis-ball sized jellyfish. However, based on the reaction of the other beachgoers they were relatively harmless. Our neighbor picked one up and enjoyed tormenting his wife and taking photos, and none of the parents seemed concerned that their kiddos were playing in the jelly infested waters. I was not willing to investigate further by potential self sacrifice.

After three hours on the beach we decided it was time to move along, so we packed up our little Lancia and headed down the road along the northern coast. We travelled through Porto Torres, and ate lunch at a roadside restaurant (by far the worst lunch we have eaten thus far). Oh well, on to the beach, we stopped at a beach called San Pietro where we sat and watched some impressive kite surfers. Then back to the car and headed toward Castelsardo, a beautiful town situated up on a hill with an ancient castle at the center, unfortunately the streets are ancient as well, making it very difficult to get around. We drove down a seriously narrow dead end street with no signage and Rich did some heroic reversing narrowly missing some very steep steps resembling a street. Once we got off this street we drove around in a circle for 15 minutes trying to find the way out of town. Finally we got out, and continued along the coast to the Costa Paradiso, another 2 star attraction. Basically it was a coast of jagged red (grand canyonesque) rocks, with a thrashing turquoise sea at the base. Also, well worth the two stars, we enjoyed sitting and watching the giant waves crash against the cliffs. Then some more driving…
The elephant rock (got 1 star), not quite worth a detour, but kinda cool if its on your way

This time we were headed for Capo Testa another 2 star location, at the northeastern tip of the coast. On our way we stopped in the nearby town, Santa Theresa di Gallura looking for Capo Testa. Unfortunately, when we got back to the car we could not turn the key. After repeatedly trying and unsuccessfully attempting to read the Italian manual we went to a nearby hotel where we were directed to Avis. Luckily the town was small enough we walked to Avis, but the employee was the only person there and there was a serious language barrier, but he told us to come back at 1900 when he could close the shop. So slightly defeated we headed back to the car to do some more reading, but while Rich read I decided this would be a good time to call Dad…he knows it all, and he speaks the same language, but my cell phone was dead. So I went back to the hotel and asked to charge my phone, and the women (knowing my distress) kindly helped out. It took 15 minutes of charging before I could make a call, but finally I was able to call my dad. He told me what to do, I went back to the car and we tried again with some new suggestions, and within minutes we were headed to Capo Testa. Thanks Dad!!! So we were only detoured for about an hour.

Once we arrived in Capo Testa we didn’t have a lot of time or tennis shoes, so we definitely were not able to enjoy it to its fullest. It is basically a giant rock playground (when I say playground I don’t mean it literally, it is a natural rock formation), that you can climb all over.
After Capo Testa we headed to Palau, a city near the top of the Costa Smeralda, by the Capo d’Orso. We stayed at the Vanna Excelsior hotel, outside the city center situated on a hill overlooking the harbor and the archipelago. We paid 80 euro for a room with a beautiful terrace with a panoramic view, breakfast included. Once we got situated we headed into town to find some dinner, and after some failed attempts we landed in Zio Nicola’s. This restaurant was facing the harbor, had the second best food of our trip, including extremely fresh (caught this morning) seafood, and we received a 15% discount, and enjoyed 1.5 liters of local white wine for 14euro.

Capo Testa

My most delicious fish dish