We visited in late June for a 1 week break with our brother and sister law and their 6 month old son.This was our nephew Druv’s first holiday and Dylan was now 11 months old. We had chosen the north of the island which is dominated by beautiful mountains and clear seas.We had hired cars for the stay and after a slow drive up winding hills we found the hotel. We had booked Li Finstredde, a beautiful hotel with stunning views. We were welcomed by the friendly staff who throughout our stay we’re really helpful with information about restaurants, surrounding areas etc.
The rooms were a good size but felt cramped because of the added cot beds. They where in close proximity to the main building. The hotel is built into the hill side so is on a few levels accessed by steps. On the first evening we dined in the hotel restaurant, the views were beautiful as we watched the sun set. Service and food were superb! It was a pricey meal but well worth it! The rest of the stay we ate out, apart from breakfast, the beautiful hilly views with the sun shining brightly down daily was glorious.
This was a week of relaxation and little exploring but daily we would go out and about to the little town at the bottom of the hill. It was lovely, and where we spent most of our evenings. It would be impossible to get there without a car in the evenings. The hill roads are tight winding paths that would have been impossible to walk in the dark, let alone with our buggy’s.
The beaches are beautiful and well worth the visit. The hotel does have its own patch of beach which we stumbled upon by accident on our way to a small cove we had found. A car is really needed to get around. There is parking easily found. Dylan loved to splash around. We thought the water was a little cold for him so only let him dip his feet but he had other ideas! he leapt in splashing and giggling. He wouldn’t even give us a chance to take him out to put his swim clothes on!
Corsica is an island just north of Sardinia and easily accessible by ferry. We had planned to visit the island as we were so close and it would be rude not to! Ferries run frequently between the ports and with a journey time of less than an hour it’s well worth it. Tickets are around £50pp return we didn’t take our car but there are options for that too. We visited the port of Bonifacio We arrived early at the port and boarded the ferry. After a fun crossing of just taking pictures and posing we arrived at Corsica.
We immediately noticed that our buggies would be difficult to manoeuvre not only on the cobbled streets but up through the steep hilly roads. There is a tourist small train that takes you to the top to the walled citadel. We managed to squeeze all of our stuff onto 2 pews and journeyed up the hill. The old town and citadel are beautiful, the narrow cobbled streets with original features and small shops was a nice way to waste away a few hours. We had lunch in the old town at a lovely restaurant serving beautiful fresh seafood and pasta. The views from this height are amazing -you get stunning views across the cliffs and down into the clear waters. We made our may back to the harbour to be closer to the port, the luxurious shop near the harbour are great for shopping. We stopped at a bar whilst the boys napped and enjoyed some refreshing cocktails overlooking the harbour watching the yachts and boats. This was bliss. We left Corisica in the late afternoon. The day trip was well worth it.
After sampling the delicious wine Sardinia has to offer our hotel suggested we go on the local winery excursion. We weren’t sure how this would work with the kids but the staff said it would be fine for them to go along- as long as they weren’t sampling the wine! We visited Vigne Sarrua which was a 25 minute drive from the hotel. The group size was small and the tour was interesting, the winery has the state of the art equipment and they showed us the different processing methods used to produce the traditional wine and modern wine. After the tour we were given samples to try. They were all so good! We had to really narrow down which wines wanted to bring home as we wanted them all! They were generous with the samples and me and Heena were feeling quite tipsy as it was Ash and Dee driving so we could ‘try’ more! http://www.vignesurrau.it
We picked up some anti pasti on the way back to the hotel and sat on the blacony enjoying the wine and meats whilst watching the sky change colours . The boys napped whilst we laughed and relaxed. Dee and Ash thought this would be a good time to catch up on ‘trying’ the wines and we had a wonderful evening enjoying the simple things,wine,cheese,meats and beautiful views.
To finish our week long holiday we had booke a local dinner in a agriturismo (traditional farm). It was a a set meal with free flowing wine and enough food to feed a small army! the dishes were all authenic Italian with a Sardinian influence. I think there was 5 courses in total and we were all ready feeling full before the mains came out, but once all the freshly barbequed meats were put in front of us I think I grew a second stomach!We had a wonderul time on our first holiday together with the kids.
The Sea is Calling 