Sardinia

Sardinia's north east coast, the Costa Smeralda, was developed from the 1960s as a low rise resort coast and still looks it: granite headlands, juniper, and water that is genuinely turquoise. Porto Cervo is the centre. The season is short and intense, roughly June to mid September, with August the busiest and most expensive fortnight in the Mediterranean. Boats are the way to see the Maddalena archipelago. Olbia airport is twenty minutes from most of the coast.