Here are the available villas for rental in Sardinia.

La dolce vita is getting cheaper

For some time I'd been fantasising about Sardinia - white sandy beaches, cliffs as sheer as footballer Paolo Maldini's cheekbones and warm relaxation to take the chill off the British autumn blues.
This is where Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts and Sting come to unwind.
It's one of the most expensive destinations in the Mediterranean and when, in September, I looked into the possibility of a fortnight's package for two adults and a toddler, the price of the one we wanted was more than £3,000.
But packages aren't the only way to go. Ryanair offer flights to Alghero, on Sardinia's north-west coast. Amazingly, we could all fly there for less than £135.
So I set myself a challenge - to get our off-season break for no more than half the cost of the package holiday.
There's an art to bagging Ryanair's cheapest fares. The best bargains are on the website, which is up-to-date and easy to use.
You can book up to 11 months ahead on the internet and the further in advance the booking, the cheaper the flights. Avoiding school holidays, being flexible about times and travelling midweek also helps.
We couldn't do a fortnight, and a week wasn't long enough. With Ryanair we could tailor the length of our stay, and after patiently tweaking dates back and forth we booked flights in October which would give us 12 nights and 13 full days.
The next hurdle is finding accommodation, which can be pricey in Italy. However, the internet will save you a small fortune.
When contacted direct many hotels offer rooms for less than two-thirds of the price quoted by travel companies on the same dates. ... more

Just what the (house) doctor ordered

From the Mail on Sunday

For a Californian like myself, the six months spent living in England while filming the House Doctor series seemed like an eternity. I was definitely suffering from a severe case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). I craved familiar blue skies and sunshine.
By the time my companion Tim and I landed in Alghero, we had done enough research to learn that Sardinia is the Mediterranean island furthest from any mainland, which may explain why so much has remained unsullied.
It also boasts a varied and rich cultural heritage that has left its mark on every aspect of Sardinian life. Our curiosities were definitely piqued. Warm weather, the sea, ancient sites, architecture, combined with Mediterranean food and wine and shopping; this promised to be the holiday that would satisfy my every requirement.
Our villa was in the middle of a tiny orchard, our very own miniature garden of Eden. We couldn't resist sampling the grapes, figs, ripe plums and apricots. Pausing to inhale the fleshy perfume of the Mediterranean summer, I felt the frenetic grey shroud of London beginning to lift.
Our sybaritic reverie was interrupted by the arrival of our landlord who gave us the keys along with a platter of Sardinian sweets and a bottle of local wine.
As we sampled the sweets and slowly sipped the wine, my eyes began wandering through the villa. I could imagine the place totally transformed. All it really needed was a bit of tweaking: a little spot of colour here and there on the walls, some new slipcovers and a few cushions for the furniture.
Of course everything would have to be rearranged. (Apparently feng shui has not yet hit Sardinia.) What about that unpleasant damp odour: what no potpourri? And really, who wants to sit staring at someone else's family photos while on holiday? Those would have to go. 'Ann',
Tim's voice jolted me back to reality, 'you're on holiday.' It was the first and last time that I needed to be reminded. Although Sardinia is notorious for being a playground for Italy's jet set, we agreed to avoid the tourist beaches with the high profiles as well as high prices. ... more

Where the sands of time slip away

From the Daily Mail

At Mandas one does nothing. At Mandas one goes to bed when it is dark, like a chicken. At Mandas one walks down the road like a pig that is going nowhere. Or so one desperately disgruntled resident told the writer D. H. Lawrence back in the Twenties. Little has changed.
Like Lawrence, I was in Mandas to catch a train, the Trenino Verde (Little Green Train) - a narrow-gauge midget that puffs (it really does puff, pulled by an ageing steam engine) through Sardinia's wild, mountainous interior to Arbatax on the coast.
Mandas was very, very quiet. Not so much sleepy as completely comatose. Granted it was Sunday and edging towards siesta time, but I had been hoping to pick up a picnic for the journey. Not even the chance of a packet of crisps, it seemed.
Under a tree in the town centre sat the row of old men that seem standard issue in Sardinian villages. Tweedledum, Tweedledee and Tweedleditto, sucking on their moustaches and staring at me glumly. Beside them were an English couple tucking in to a packed lunch from the Hotel La Bitta in Arbatax. They'd caught the morning train to Mandas, and were returning that afternoon. A far more sensible arrangement, I thought hungrily.
We met up again on the station platform. The only other passengers were an old Italian couple, a local farmer, and a Dutchman whose partner was driving on to meet him a couple of miles up the track. Disappointingly, the steam engine was out of service, so we were to be pulled by a chugging little diesel, just like the one I whizzed around a toy train track as a child.
Only four or five trains a day pass through Mandas. The station staff bustled about, happy at last to have something to do. They almost outnumbered the passengers. One engineer carefully used a different pair of gloves for each of his tasks. Thick greasy ones to couple the train to its single carriage and to test the brakes, bright orange rubber ones to fill the water tank, and a pristine white pair worn underneath the others.
The train gave a Toytown toot-toot and, with an equally storybook tik-ah-ca-tick, trundled out of Mandas into the surrounding farmland. 'Sit on the right hand side,' the old Italian man advised. 'Much better views.'
We passed vineyards and vegetable fields, and went over level crossings with bells ringing wildly. Often the conductor would shout out a greeting to a crossing attendant, or ask after family. A succession of tiny stations went by. At Sadali the driver dropped off a parcel for a friend of his wife's. Near Villanova we had to slow down and toot to get goats off the track. ... more

Five of the best

Sunshine, beautiful scenery, splendid art treasures and a rich historical past - Italy is a charmed land, which seems to have been stuffed full of good things like some giant Christmas stocking.
All the great things in life - beauty, food, wine, opera, football, art, religion, ice cream and the pursuit of happiness - matter more in Italy.
It is no wonder that the British have been going there for more than 1,000 years, as pilgrims, adventurers, poets, on the Grand Tour and as package tourists.
But it is important to remember that Italy is a modern invention. The nation came into being only in the 1860s, and it retains strong regional differences.
This diversity - of cuisine, art, outlook, landscape - is one of the great joys of the country, making it a pleasure to visit and re-visit.
There are lots of different Italys to discover. Here are five of them.

Striking it rich on the Costa Fortune

From the Mail on Sunday

It didn't take me long to discover that Sardinia's Costa Smeralda is no ordinary holiday destination.
I queued behind Richard Branson at the airport check-in and sat behind Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason on the plane.
And, as soon as I arrived, I went exploring the lanes near my hotel and stumbled on Peter Gabriel's wedding. Phil Collins was playing piano in the garden.
When I told everyone at my hotel they shrugged with polite indifference. A taxi driver was a little more blunt: 'So what?' he asked.
While I thought it was turning into a star-spangled weekend, to them it was just a normal couple of days at the Mediterranean's poshest seaside.
For billionaires and beautiful people are commonplace on this exclusive strip of Sardinian coastline.
The pretty, sandy coves surrounded by smooth, pink granite boulders are dotted with luxury villas owned by international figures like the Aga Khan, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and Gianni Agnelli, billionaire president of Fiat.
Hotel staff reel off lists of names such as Michael Douglas, Denzel Washington and Hugh Grant as recent guests.
In the waterfront bars of Porto Cervo you can find a huge range of celebrities like Naomi Campbell, Gianluca Vialli or Jon Bon Jovi.
Princess Margaret once celebrated her birthday at a villa there and Spain's King Juan Carlos pops into town regularly. ... more