Porto Cervo

Before the resort existed, this stretch of granite coast in the Gallura region was known as Monti di Mola, and local people called the deep natural inlet Poltu mannu, and its shape is said to recall a deer — Porto Cervo means "deer's port". In the early 1960s Prince Karim Aga Khan IV bought land along the coast and, with a consortium of companies, began developing it; the Consorzio Costa Smeralda, founded in 1962, planned each stage of building. The old port dates from 1962 and the village was inaugurated in 1964.

The Aga Khan turned first not to an architect but to a stage designer, the Frenchman Jacques Couelle, whose sketches were turned into plans by the Piedmontese architect Luigi Vietti — who also proposed the name Costa Smeralda, after the colour of the sea. The Roman architect Michele Busiri Vici and his son Giancarlo designed the Stella Maris church, apartment buildings and villas from 1962. Because Sardinia's airports at Alghero and Cagliari were far away, the airline Alisarda was created and a modern airport opened at Olbia.

The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda was founded in 1967 and challenged for the America's Cup in 1983 with Azzurra, finishing third. Expansion of the port began in the 1980s, and the newer marina grew up on the western side of the bay. The resort became one of the most expensive in the world. After the Aga Khan's death on 4 February 2025, Olbia's airport was renamed in his honour.

Porto Cervo's look is its most distinctive feature. Its designers wanted buildings that kept continuity with the simple rural architecture of Gallura and blended into the landscape, and the result — a so-called Mediterranean style that spread along the whole north-east coast — mixes Sardinian forms with elements borrowed from Capri, Amalfi, Apulia, Sicily, the Cyclades, Provence, Andalusia and the Maghreb. Rough stucco walls, irregular arches, tiled roofs and the red-brick paving of the piazzetta were meant to look as if they had grown there.

The Stella Maris church, in a style inspired by Nuragic monuments, Greek island architecture and Byzantine churches, holds a Mater Dolorosa by El Greco and is the village's best-known building. Sailing defines the resort's sporting identity: the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda hosted the 1984 World 12-Metre championship and twice challenged for the America's Cup, and the Sardinia Cup regatta is held off the coast each September. Polo is played at Gershan near Arzachena from spring to autumn.

From the start the Costa Smeralda drew celebrities, business and political leaders and other wealthy visitors, and summer nightlife — the club Pedro's at Liscia di Vacca was among the first businesses to open — is part of its image. Beneath the resort, the surrounding countryside keeps its Gallurese language and identity.

Porto Cervo is not a municipality but a frazione of Arzachena, which has about 13,500 inhabitants. The village itself has a resident population of only about 420, and for much of the year it is quiet; in summer it fills with visitors. Since the 1960s tourism has replaced agriculture as the main source of work across the Arzachena area.

The resort's development changed the wider region. Many of the families who had sold farmland near the beaches moved to Olbia in the 1960s, built new houses and started businesses, and Olbia's port, airport and economy grew with the Costa Smeralda. Today the economy of the village revolves around luxury hotels, villa rentals, the marina and its shipyard, which repairs large yachts, and the boutiques of the old village.

Property prices are among the highest anywhere: Romazzino Bay has been named the most expensive location in Europe, and prime home prices on the Costa Smeralda rose by 18 per cent in 2023. The gap between the summer resort and the year-round life of the inland towns is a constant feature of the area.

Porto Cervo's own restaurants serve seafood and international cooking to a wealthy summer crowd, but the food of the surrounding Gallura is rooted in the countryside. Suppa cuatta, or Gallurese soup, layers Sardinian bread with casizolu cheese, spices and pecorino, softens it with broth and bakes it in the oven. Chiusòni, the Gallurese name for macarrones cravàos, are small cylinders of durum wheat semolina pasta, made across Sardinia but especially in Gallura.

Seafood from the island's coasts includes bottarga, salted and cured roe, usually from mullet. Seadas, discs of thin dough filled with fresh, slightly sour pecorino and flavoured with lemon, are fried and covered with melted honey, preferably a bitter one such as strawberry-tree honey.

The area's best-known wine is Vermentino di Gallura, a white made from the light-skinned Vermentino grape, which is said to have been grown here since the 14th century; it holds DOCG status. Meals often end with mirto, a liqueur popular in Sardinia and Corsica.