Friday 16 June Cagliari, Poetto Beach

We have breakfast in the less salubrious area of the arcade, with a voucher from AE BundesJack (very strange name; conjures up an international sort of place, but it's just Luigi and Vittoria neither of whom speak any English, so we communicate in sub o-level Italian). We decide on cycling to Poetto beach, but had seriously thought of getting the bus instead. There's at least six lanes of dense urban traffic outside where we're staying, and the route to the beach is no better. Unfortunately it's as bad as we feared, a really hideous cycle. The beach itself is famous; 6 km of uninterrupted sand. We must be the oldest here, and are surrounded by skimpy bikini clad young girls and their strutting boyfriends. It's so hot and airless that we decide we need shade and hire a couple of loungers and an umbrella which makes the experience much more tolerable. The cycle back is equally hideous, but we do at least find a cycle track for part of the way through the port. We have a final drink in the old part of the town with stunning panoramic views and then have pizza and ice cream before sitting on the balcony under a stelliferous sky (with 6 lanes of traffic roaring by beneath).