Sardinia & Corsica: Islands of Italy and France

Rome asks for nothing today – just your curiosity. As arrival times vary, the day is yours to explore at your own pace: wander through cobblestone neighborhoods, stop at a corner café, or taste the gelato. As evening approaches, gather with your fellow travelers for a welcome aperitivo drink before a night on your own.

A one-hour flight carries you off the Italian mainland and into a different world entirely. Touch down in Alghero on Sardinia's western coast and check in to your hotel. Alghero is unlike anywhere else on the island. Dominated for centuries by the Spanish Kingdom of Aragon, the city retains a unique dialect that is closer to Catalan than to Italian, and its rich history is still reflected in its street names and architecture. Join your Tour Manager for an orientation walk through this walled city before an evening at leisure in this lively locale.

This morning, visit Nuraghe Palmavera – a Bronze Age tower complex built by Sardinia's indigenous Nuragic people, a civilization that left more than 7,000 stone structures scattered across the island. Afterward, wander the fruit and vegetable stalls at Alghero's public market. Lunch and the afternoon are on your own: the old town's pedestrian lanes are lined with local restaurants, small shops and a coral museum worth a look. Consider a motorboat ride out to the Neptune Caves, where stalactites and stalagmites fill chambers right at sea level. As evening falls, take a passeggiata (stroll) along the city ramparts.

This morning, travel through northern Sardinia with a stop in Castelsardo – a hilltop town wrapped around a medieval castle. Its narrow lanes are still home to artisans who weave palm-leaf baskets by hand, a craft with roots in agricultural and fishing life that has defined the town for generations. In the afternoon, climb aboard a ferry* for a one-hour trip across the Strait of Bonifacio, watching the white limestone cliffs of France's largest island rise from the sea as you approach. Corsica didn't pass to France until 1768, one year before Napoleon was born here. Transfer to your hotel and settle in for an evening at leisure.

This morning, it's your choice! Join a local expert for a walking tour of Bonifacio’s Old Town, tracing history as you take in the Étendard Bastion and the citadel -OR- pull on your walking shoes for a hike** along the limestone cliffs above Bonifacio, where the views stretch across the old town and all the way to Sardinia on the horizon. The afternoon is yours to explore the town at your own pace.

Today is yours. Hop a local boat out to the Îles Lavezzi – a cluster of uninhabited islands in the Strait, known for their hidden coves and clear water – or join an optional excursion to Porto-Vecchio. Built in 1539 as a fortified hilltop port, Porto-Vecchio was designed to control the sea lanes and hold the south of Corsica against invasion. Walk the old fortifications and browse the lanes at your own pace before returning to Bonifacio for an evening on your own.

Cross back to Sardinia by ferry boat* this morning and trade the cliffs of Corsica for the rugged hills of the Gallura. Along the way, visit a local winery for a tour and a tasting lunch of their own production. This afternoon, check into your resort hotel on the Gallura Coast – perched in a panoramic position on Sardinia's northern shore, with extensive grounds and a private beach within walking distance. Settle in for a three-night stay.

Following an early morning transfer to the port, board your boat for a cruise along the Costa Smeralda before reaching the archipelago of La Maddalena – a national park made up of more than 60 islands and islets off Sardinia's northeastern tip. You'll cruise aboard a large, shared vessel (150–200 passengers); the standard way to cruise this protected park. The boat makes three stops in total – the village of La Maddalena and two island landings where you can walk the beaches or even swim. Return to the hotel for an evening at leisure.

Today, it's your choice! Take a full day to unwind at the resort – lounge by the pool, walk the private beach, and simply let the pace slow down -OR- head to glamorous Porto Cervo, the village at the heart of the Costa Smeralda. In the early 1960s, Prince Karim Aga Khan set out to build one of Europe's first purpose-designed luxury coastal destinations along this stretch of Sardinia's northeastern coast. The result was Porto Cervo: a place that manages to feel both exclusive and stunning – and attracts the international jet set.

Leave the coast behind and drive into Sardinia's seemingly untouched mountainous interior. En route to the Barbagia, visit a cork workshop and get to know one of the island's most important crafts: Sardinia supplies some of the finest cork in the world, sealing bottles of Chianti, Brunello, and Barolo in cellars across Italy. Check in for a three-night stay at Su Gologone Experience Hotel – a property built around the traditions of the Barbagia. The rooms are simple by design; the corridors are hung with local crafts and artwork. Rooms are spread across the hillside, some requiring climbing flights of stairs.*** Dinner is served around 8:00 p.m., when the sun finally dips below the horizon. That rhythm of life, with easy movement, late meals, a little bit of everything, and time spent outdoors, reflects the un po' di tutto approach that researchers have linked to Sardinia's extraordinary longevity. As one of the world's renowned Blue Zones, the island's relaxed pace is something you'll feel firsthand.

This morning, visit the village of Mamoiada and step into one of Sardinia's most distinctive living traditions during an Impact Moment at the Mediterranean Mask Museum. Explore a collection of masks from carnival traditions across the island and Italy – including the haunting Mamuthones, weighed down with heavy bells, and the Issohadores, dressed in red and white. These figures symbolize seasonal cycles, land, and the balance between order and wildness – still performed each February by volunteers from across the community. Your visit directly supports the local carnival association in maintaining the handcrafted costumes and masks that anchor this tradition. Back at the hotel this afternoon, roll up your sleeves for a Sardinian cooking class — and come ready to unlearn everything you think you know about Italian food. What goes onto the table here has nothing to do with the mainland: the pasta shapes are different, the sauces are different, the proteins are different. You are the chef for your dinner tonight – buon appetito!

This morning, it's your choice! Work alongside a local artisan at the hotel in a hands-on craft workshop – a window into the skills passed down through Barbagia's ovili settlements for generations -OR- climb into an off-road vehicle for a 30-minute drive to a Bronze Age Nuragic village. The hike** to the ruins gains about 150 feet on an unpaved path and rewards with the sight of a stone settlement built between 1800 and 800 BC. Those who want to go further can enter a cave with prehistoric relics still inside. Everyone comes together at midday: load back into the jeeps and head to a local shepherd's hut for lunch. The meal is exactly what a shepherd would pull together from the land in this season – simple and deeply connected to the present season. Return to the hotel for an afternoon at leisure before gathering this evening for a Blue Zone dinner: ancestral recipes from Barbagia's home kitchens, the kind of table that has helped keep this corner of Sardinia's centenarian count among the highest in the world.

Say goodbye to Sardinia this morning. A two-hour drive brings you to Olbia for your flight back to Rome Fiumicino, where you check into a seaside hotel near the airport.

Depart for home carrying a different understanding of two islands that share a sea but sound, eat, and live like nowhere else on earth.