Gallura is where Sardinia lets its wild side run riot. In the island’s northeast, boulder-scattered hills and dense forests of holm oak, olive, pine and myrtle trees roll down to a coast that makes you gasp out loud. Castaway coves, wave-whipped promontories and dune-flanked sands ease into the gloriously blue Strait of Bonifacio. The Maddalena island archipelago and Corsica are just a white-tipped wave away.

You’ve no doubt heard all about the A-list beaches of the Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast), but Gallura’s real beauty shines when you stray beyond the beach to time-lost villages, vineyards producing Vermentino white wines with the salty tang of the sea and off-the-radar agriturismi (farm stays) where cicadas strum and porceddu (suckling pig) crackles over an open fire.