The archipelago of La Maddalena and its magnificent beaches
Shores and enchanting coves, on which stands the granite and vegetation
The archipelago of La Maddalena, situated in the northeastern coast of Sardinia is made up of seven main and more than fifty smaller islands. The largest islands: La Maddalena, Caprera, Budelli, Spargi, Santo Stefano, Razzoli and Santa Maria, granitic and schistose, they conserve geo-marine conditions of great natural value, thanks to the fact that over time their environmental value remained almost intact.
The area represents a geo-marine park that includes about five acres of land and fifteen of sea. The park includes all the main and the smaller islands, forming one of the most picturesque landscapes in the world, for a variety of reasons ranging from the geographic location to the morphology of the territory, from the landscape to the marine biodiversity.
Its crucial position in the Mediterranean Sea has allowed the archipelago to play an important role from a historical and strategic point of view, arousing the attention of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is impossible not to point out the importance of Caprera Island, famous for hosting Giuseppe Garibaldi, the main Italian hero, whose house is now home to an important and most valuable museum. Also the island of Santo Stefano hosted for many years a naval base of the US Navy.
Today, this unique ecosystem is limiting much, (as after all, it always did in the past) degradation due to changes made by the mankind and it is managed to retain a substantial condition of cleanliness and exclusivity both in terrestrial context, especially in Spargi, Budelli, Razzoli Islands and other smaller islands, and in the sea setting up a positive example of environment preservation, allowing the archipelago to being declared a national park in 1994.
The archipelago is sparsely populated. Besides La Maddalena Island, where there is the pretty town of the same name which has about eleven thousands inhabitants, the village of Stagnali in Caprera and a few open order houses, the rest of the Archipelago is completely uninhabited.
The many beaches and the various coves, disseminated throughout the islands, are famous for the transparency and clarity of the sea and the whiteness of their sands. Some of these can easily stand the comparison with the most beautiful and famous ones in the world.
Among the many outstand Cala Coticcio and Cala Caprese, in Caprera Island, the most beautiful of the archipelago, the two corners of paradise virtually untouched. Cala Conneri, Cala Granara and Cala Corsara, in the beautiful Spargi Island, are three pearls of incomparable beauty that do not fear comparison even with the Caribbean seas: lonely, isolated, magnificent, white sand and crystal clear water, alternating charming colors, full of nuances.
The pink beach, on Budelli Island, which takes its name from the pink of its sand, due to the crumbling of millions of marine shells, is perhaps the best known. This magnificent beach has been so visited in the past by hundreds of thousands of tourists to the point that has seriously threatened to disappear completely. Today to preserve its integrity and regain her regular balance, you can visit only if accompanied by guides of the Park.
Even today, the archipelago remains a place largely intact and unchanged, unique and charming. It is not a hazard to compare it to heavenly beaches of the Caribbean. Shores and enchanting coves, on which granite rock and vegetation stand. A sea of the most beautiful in the world, a landscape always wild, with superlatives colors and scents. A place where you feel and breathes only the nature of Sardinia, in one of his most extraordinary and unforgettable pictures.