48 HOURS IN… Sant’Antioco
About an hour’s drive from Cagliari airport, Sant’Antioco, the ‘Island of the Island’, is covered with trees and hills and has a coastline of cliffs and beaches. Italy’s fourth largest island (it is about half the size of Elba), it was inhabited throughout the Nuragic, Phoenician and Punic eras, and the Romans built a stone bridge to connect it to the rest of Sardinia. (Today it is connected by a main road over a causeway.)
The Phoenicians called the town of Sant’Antioco ‘Sulki’. It was later renamed after the martyr Antiochus of Sulcis, who converted the inhabitants to Christianity and became the patron saint of the island, and also of Sardinia. With such a long history, you already know there are many remains and places to visit. But take your time. Roberta Serrenti, Sant’Antioco’s Consul for Tourism, speaks of Sant’Antioco as a ‘slow’ island, a place to come and relax and taste the island’s produce and nature.
The two main population centres on the island are the town
