Sardigna is the size of New Hampshire. Looking at a map of the Mediterranean, it appears to be floating right smack in the middle of the sea with Italy to its right, Spain to its left and Tunisia below. Separated from the French island of Corse - Corsica as we commonly call it - by the Strait of Bonifacio, an 12 nautical mile passage that funnels the sea between these two ginormous islands.

Costa Smeralda refers to the rugged coastline along the northeastern region of Sardinia. It is characterized by massive, pink-hued granite formations, sculpted by wind and sea over millennia, and by an archipelago of small islands scattered just offshore. Historically, the coast was sparsely inhabited, with few settlements; communities were typically built farther inland, where conditions were more favorable for agriculture. The Costa Smeralda became modernized in the 1960s, when Prince Karim Aga Khan IV spearheaded the development of Porto Cervo as a high-end resort destination, transforming the region into a center of luxury tourism and contributing to the expansion of Olbia’s airport infrastructure.