How do you spend time during your holidays? I must say that I don't enjoy spending all days at a beach. I like to explore new places, learn about the history, experience the culture, talk to locals or try local specialties. I prefer active holidays and I'm lucky that my husband is the same. We go to a beach every day for up to two hours and the rest of the day we spend exploring.
Last summer, we went to Sardinia and recently I have realized that I haven't shared all my memories with you yet. What a shame! Let's change it and explore the streets of Alghero with me!
We traveled around Sardinia a few years ago, so we decided to stay at one place and spend more time exploring one region. We spent some time researching our options and at the end we settled for the western part of the island where we found a beautiful house to rent in Alghero. It was a great choice!
Alghero with its historic center called Alguer Vella is well knows for its narrow cobbled stone streets, picturesque architecture, historical monuments, many restaurants, shops with local products and a long promenade next to the sea. Even though, it's the 5th largest city in Sardinia, it still keeps its medieval charm and atmosphere.
I'm sure that everyone can find something to do here - you can go sailing, enjoy a boat trip, shopping, eating at one of many restaurants, going for a walk at the ancient walls or try the best gelato in the world! Eating the gelato was my favorite part! 🙂
When you come by car, head directly to the underground parking garage in the old town as finding parking space outside is a lot of hassle. Believe me, it will save you some frustration. We learned this on our second day!
Let's start out tour!
The history of Alghero dates back to the 11th century. It used to be a small fishing village which was fortified by the Genovese family Doria in 1102. They put walls around the town to protect their interests in Sardinia. You can visit the fortification (even though not complete) even today.
The town was ruled by the Genoese until the middle of the 14th century. After that it was taken over by the Catalans and remained ruled by them and the Spanish for four centuries.
The meaning of the name Alghero is questionable as there are various theories but the most probable version would be Town full of seaweeed. Aliga means seaweed and there are large amounts of seaweed on the beaches around Alghero. We even saw a tractor removing the seaweed from the beach. It was collected away from the beach and we could see big piles of it growing and growing and growing each day.
The influence of Catalonia remains strongly present in the town even today. People use Catalan language, the churches and other historical buildings in the city are built in Catalan architecture and even the cuisine is strongly influenced by the Catalans. It's also called a small Barcelona or Barcelonetta as it has a lot in common with Spanish Barcelona.
The people of Alghero seem to love flowers and you can see them all over the city. They are beautifully arranged everything.
I loved the narrow streets and all kind of doors when I wandered around the town. I immediately thought that this would be my inspiration for this post. At the first sight all streets look the same. The buildings have sandy colors, there are plants everywhere and in every street you will for sure find some laundry hanging out of the window 🙂
However, when you pay attention to detail you will realize that they are so different! It's not only that the flowers and plants are arranged differently, but the doors are of different sizes and the windows are even at different heights!
If you want to learn some history facts you can also book a private guide. We didn't want to do it this time as we wanted to be spontaneous and just focus on the particular moment.
While strolling around the town do not forget to stop in one of typical restaurants, bistros and bars. There is nothing better than a refreshing beverage on a hot summer day!
Also, order a glass of local wine for dinner. You will not regret it. Alghero has a wide wine selection from which we tried a few varieties and all of them were delicious. Our favorite was sparkling rose wine from Sella & Mosca. We sent a couple of bottles to Switzerland too! 🙂
For dinner, I would suggest to get a pizza at least once because let me tell you that you will love it! It's simply perfect!
There are plenty of cool retro bikes around the city. It makes you want to grab one and go for a ride. Well, we didn't do it as it was too hot.
String of pearls is one of my favorite plant and I struggle to keep it alive at home. It looks like this strong buddy doesn't need much to prosper there!
I have not much to say about the strange art on the right. I accepted that I don't have to understand everything 🙂
Evening walks along the city walls are the best. It's not so hot anymore, you can admire the sunset, there is breeze from the sea and all the lights makes it look like a Mediterranean fairy tale.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
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Beautiful place
It's beautiful place!!!
Daily Travel Digest #1578.
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I love this architecture a lot even those doors that you took. ^_^ Thank you for your sharing!
Thank you for stopping by :)
Wow what a picturesque town. Love the old architecture with all the variety of doors and windows. The same, same, same of modern suburbs can be boring. The flowers add nice color the the stucco and stone buildings. We have been eating and making a lot of pizza lately. I bit the authentic mediterranean pizza was wonderful.
Living in Switzerland, I must say that we don't have that many modern suburbs but I agree that seeing the same things all the time might become boring at some point :)
Pizza in Italy is truly the best! I don't eat it much at home but I always enjoy it when we cross the border..
Thank you for your comment :)
Hi Martina, looks like a very nice city to just hang back and relax for a bit while sitting at a good restaurant watching the sea :-)
Hi there :) Yes, it's exactly the place where you want to sit back and enjoy :)
Thank you for stopping by!
Tomu říkám malebné uličky středomořského městečka :) Nádhera... Sardinii máme hodně vysoko na travel listu, tak snad brzy ;)
@tipu curate
Urcite si to tam uzijete. Pre nas sa Sardinia stala tradiciou a chodime tam dost casto. Najprv sme kazdy den menili mesto a precestovali sme viac krat cely ostrov, ale oplati sa aj zostat na jednom mieste a len si to jednoducho uzit. Drzim palce, nech sa tam dostanete cim skor :) Pre nas to bude tento rok Mallorca a Lotyssko :)
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Hi Martina, great tour. Looks like a wonderful place to explore and enjoy the culture. I am like you and like to explore on my trips.
Hi Sara, thank you for stopping by! I've noticed in your post that you will be coming to Amsterdam? :) I don't know if I will join the event but I will try to come to the city so that we can finally meet! :)
Yes, I was thinking about you. I would love to meet you in person. That would be so great.