One of the highest sand deserts in Europe
On the wild Costa Verde, in the municipality of Arbus in south western Sardinia, the dunes of Piscinas form one of the largest and highest sand deserts in Europe: a vast expanse of golden sand stretching for about 8 kilometres along the coast and up to two kilometres inland, with dunes that reach heights of 60 to 100 metres, shaped and moved by the strong mistral wind blowing from the north west. It is a landscape that looks like the Sahara, but faces the sea.
The dunes are covered here and there with Mediterranean vegetation, junipers, lentisks and wild lilies, which help to fix the sand, and are home to a surprising fauna: the Sardinian deer, which comes down to the beach at dawn, foxes, hares and, on the beach, the nesting loggerhead turtles. The long beach of Piscinas, facing a sea that is often rough, is one of the wildest in Italy, without buildings except for an old hotel in a mining warehouse. The area was once part of the mining district of Montevecchio and Ingurtosu, and you reach it along a dirt road that passes the ruins of the mining village of Ingurtosu, with its abandoned buildings, and the rusty remains of the mine railway that carried the ore to the beach.
Tip: the dirt road to Piscinas is long and bumpy; walking on the dunes is best at sunset, when the light paints the sand orange and red.
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