Since its 1960s heyday, this stretch of northern Sardinia has been an ultra-luxurious summer hangout for some of the sleekest Superyachts in the Med. Untouched mountains give way to pristine white beaches and turquoise shallows. World-class Vermentino vineyards stretch down to the coastline, and a calendar of high-profile yachting regattas keep the marinas busy all season.
Alongside the Italian island’s famed agriturismi (countryside farm-to-table restaurants), the region is peppered with glamorous beach bars, Michelin-starred restaurants and waterside terraces. Here we pay a visit to Romazzino, the much-anticipated new Belmond opening, and return to an old favourite in its watersports hub.
The Showstopper: Romazzino
Sardinia is full of hardly-believable stories – myths and fables spanning the Bronze Age Nuragic civilisation to the extraordinary visions of the Aga Khan IV when he began transforming the Costa Smeralda in the 1960s. Among all this is Romazzino, a sprawling waterfront villa-hotel that turned heads as the most expensive residential real-estate sale in Italian history. It was built for an oil baron in the 1960s by two iconic architects, Luigi Vietti and Michele Busiri Vici, in keeping with the region’s design styles du jour: thick whitewashed walls, terracotta floors and a low-rise profile in order to blend into the landscape.
The vast property reopened in 2024 under Belmond management to much acclaim. The hotel’s two restaurants and three bars are, as one would expect, seamless. Under the helm of Chef Dario Parascandolo, the dining experience across the board draws on those laid-back Italian summers of our collective nostalgia – and the same ones so often captured by Slim Aarons. It’s children sharing platters of hot spaghetti al pomodoro under the shade of a bougainvillea pergola; honeymooning couples enjoying a shellfish platter, eyes only for one another. The menus are rooted in island dishes, but always with Parascandolo’s elevated touch.
Éntu e Mari whips up a lunchtime feast of freshly caught seafood cooked over a grill. The name is Sardinian dialect, meaning ‘between the wind and the sea’, a reference to the north-westerly Maestrale that prevails. After a sumptuous buffet of cured meats, milky-white burrata and myriad other cheeses, the hotel’s private beach beckons for sunbathing and swimming in the extraordinary turquoise-green bay.
In the evening, Restaurant La Terrasse is the spot to enjoy both local specialities and broader Italian fine dining, with panoramic bay views. The furniture is delightfully retro, and the whole atmosphere follows suit. Begin with outrageously good oysters from the neighbouring Maddalena islands, lightly marinated in a tangy, sweet and sour scabecciu-style dressing used for seafood throughout the region. It’s hard to put a creative spin on oysters without diminishing their simplicity, but Parascandolo succeeds here for a memorable entrée.
There are Italian classics on the menu, of course, beef carpaccio, clam linguine, even a veal Milanese… but the real magic is in seeing how delicately Parascandolo manages to juggle ancient culinary traditions with panache. There’s theatre to the experience, too: prawns and peaches scented with basil are flambéed with Cognac before your table, while locally sourced lamb comes still smoking from the state-of-the-art Josper grill. As for the suckling pig, a staple in traditional agriturismi across the isle? Well, some things simply never change.
belmond.com/hotels/europe/italy/costa-smeralda/belmond-romazzino
The Inside Tip: Il Ristorantino, Porto Pollo Sailing Club
When you return to the watersports haven of Porto Pollo year after year, it’s the unique scent of erica, a Mediterranean shrub that lines the coastal headlands around Sardinia, that hits first. Sweet, floral and herbaceous, spritzed with salt from the sea breeze, it lingers in the air and memory.
Down on the beach at Il Ristorantino, the erica scent is just as prescient. As evening approaches, kite surfers and dinghy sailors pootle into shore and drop their gear outside the Porto Pollo Sailing Club before scrubbing up ready for a delectable dinner metres from the sand.
The tables of Il Ristorantino spill out onto the Sailing Club deck, wetsuits and sailcloth still drying under the last of the sun as the first guests arrive for dinner. The menu is short, well-executed and (like all the greatest seafood spots) unpredictable, changing with whatever comes in off the boats. Swordfish is often a feature, as well as various seafood primi dishes: spaghetti with clams, pachino tomatoes and bottarga is a perennial favourite that’s bursting with umami, while the lobster linguine feels wickedly rich and indulgent.
Perhaps the most distinctive, however, are the little gnocchi-like Sardinian nuggets known as chiusoni, served with creamed artichoke, mussels and pecorino. It dispels the much-touted rule of Italian cooking that – just like not having a cappuccino after noon – one should never cook seafood with cheese. Instead, drawing on hyper-local ingredients, this is a dish that celebrates both the coastal catch and the rich farming heritage of Sardinia’s interior. For sheep are at least as plentiful as people on this green isle, and the almost sweet, grassy pecorino cheese made here is some of the best in Italy.
