If you are looking for a wide variety of interesting things to do on holiday then you will find Sardinia can provide all your requirements. The landscape varies from coastal beauty to rugged mountains and is covered with ancient sites and idyllic villages hidden away from the main towns. The people are naturally friendly and their hospitality is second to none. Add to this the excellence of their food and wine and you have the makings of a great holiday destination.

Sardinia is an island for both adventure and cultural holidays. For the active there are the many watersports including scuba, surfing, sailing, windsurfing and kayaking. There are plenty of good walking and biking routes, especially in the central mountains. These mountains even provide good rock climbing are also a nature-lovers paradise with superb forests and lots of wildlife to see, especially birds of prey.

Horseriding is a passion in Sardinia and there are numerous places where you can hire horses or join guided trips. If you manage to get to the Island in February, you can watch what must be one of the most exciting historical events, the "Sa Sartiglia" in Oristano. Costumed riders try to spear a star suspended from ropes across the street, using a sword whilst riding through the streets at high speeds. This really is a most colourful and exciting experience. [photo of horseriders?]

Sardinia has been described as one large, open-air museum; in fact, its position in the centre of the Mediterranean has guaranteed that, from the earliest times, it was a required stop along trade routes as well as whetting the appetite of conquerors over the centuries. Inhabited from an early age (first settlement traces go back half a million years) the island has experienced a succession of cultures and civilisations all of which have left their individual traces on the island's landscape. [Photo of Iron Age Nuraghe Losa, or the Phoenician town of Tharros].

Culture and religion are very special to the inhabitants of this island, and wherever you wander you'll see old churches, shrines, monuments and museums crammed with interesting artefacts. You frequently see villagers dressed in national costume celebrating yet another Saint's day and, of course, the old ladies of the villages, dressed in black.

There are plenty of hotels, guest houses, farms, holiday villas and camp sites available in Sardinia but most don't open until April then close in late October. Rural tourism is another development on the island where visitors are enticed to spend their holiday in direct contact with the local inhabitants, staying in the countryside, boarding in farmhouses, sharing the same meals, and even participating with the family they are staying with.

Warmed by the mistral winds off the Iberian coast, Sardinia has good weather most of the year and a mild temperature all year around. You can reach the island either by flying Alitalia to Rome and then getting a connecting flight, or you can fly direct from Stanstead with Ryaniar.

For more details contact the Italian Tourist Board in London

tel: 0207 355 1439, or The Sardinian Way in Oristano

tel: 0039078 375172;

e-mail: sardway@tiscalinet.it