Poetto

Um, it was the Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam.

It's the 10th anniversary of this event being here because Poetto Beach in the south of Sardinia just seems to produce these fantastic, fantastic mistral winds, which we witnessed.

And, and just, uh, I hadn't been involved in the game since Poetto Beach a year earlier, and it was great to come back and see the, the best Olympic kiteboarders in the world in about 20 knots of wind, uh, getting close to 40 knots of speed on a, on a meter long, not even a meter long hoverboard.

Uh, Riccardo Pianosi, the winning Italian, actually clocking 40.2 knots on his slingshot bear away.

Um, i- just the, the level of physical courage required to stand on a board that small, trying to manage a kite in close proximity to your competitors, it- the athleticism of it is, is beyond belief.

That was a day at the beach.

Poetto, which was... is Cagliari's city beach, was different.

It had a long-established tradition of lidos, uh, not so many of them, had facilities dating back to the early 20th century when it developed as Cagliari's main beach.

But elsewhere, the idea that every beach should have food, drinks, toilets, showers, music, and sunbeds simply was not part of our expectations.

And nowhere is that distinction more obvious than on our coastline.

There's a very good example of this debate happening in Cagliari.

If you have ever been to Poetto at all, you may have noticed there is an enormous carved, uh, curved building standing directly beside the beach for decades.

It was abandoned.

Cagliari is perfectly feasible without a car.

You can explore the historic center and food, use public transport to reach Poeto Beach and other areas of the city.

You can use trains and buses for certain day trips.

It can also work really well without a car, particularly during the tourist season when there are buses that connect several beaches and Capocaccia.