Italy
Cala Goloritzé
A limestone needle rising from emerald water, the cove reachable only by a cliff-edge trail.
The limestone pinnacle rises like a white tooth against deep blue, and beneath it the cove curves in pale pebbles lapped by water so clear that swimmers hang suspended in turquoise space. No road comes here. The approach is a steep trail or the sea, and the sea may not land.
Cala Goloritzé hides at the southern reach of Sardinia's Gulf of Orosei, born of a landslide in 1962 and now an Italian Natural Monument. The land route drops some 470 metres from the Golgo plateau above Baunei, a booked and capped descent that keeps the pebbles quiet; boats must stand off rather than land. Above the beach the Aguglia, a limestone needle of roughly 140 metres, has drawn rope-and-rack climbers since its arete first went free in the early 1980s. Freshwater springs seep through the seabed, which is half the secret of the water's unreasonable clarity.
Couple
The descent is demanding enough to be earned, and the motorless cove below is as romantically isolated as the Mediterranean gets.
Solo
Hike down, swim beneath the needle, climb out; self-reliant coastal adventure at its purest.
Friends
Trail, swim and optional rock make a full-day adventure with one of the island's best payoffs.
- The booked cliff trail drops some 470 metres from the Golgo plateau to the cove.
- The Aguglia needle, roughly 140 metres of vertical limestone, has drawn climbers since the 1980s.
- Boats must stand off the protected shore; swimmers and kayaks arrive, engines do not land.
- The cove itself is young, formed by a landslide in 1962 and protected since 1995.
There is no bar, kiosk or refill at the cove; everything you drink and eat rides down in your pack.
Culurgiones, potato-mint parcels crimped like ears of wheat, wait in Baunei for the climb back out.
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