Alghero, Neptune's Grotto, Trinità di Saccárgia, and fortress ruins

This morning we got up early and even skipped the breakfast buffet to make our way to the city of Alghero, which is about two hours away. We actually wanted to visit the city three years ago on a cruise, but we had to stay in Corsica back then because of strong winds. However, because it is supposed to be so beautiful, we took the slightly longer drive to see it.

On the way, we got stuck in traffic because driving through construction sites and merging in zipper fashion works even worse in Italy than in Germany.

But first, we drove past Alghero and headed towards Capo Caccia.

There, after 654 steps, we found the Grotta di Nettuno, an impressive stalactite cave.

There is a guided tour here every hour. It can be quite crowded in summer. But when we arrived, there was no one else in line and we were the only visitors on our 10 o'clock tour.

We were even lucky that our guide spoke very good German, so we got a private tour in our own language.

With only two people, we had plenty of time to marvel and take pictures. We had seen that up to 200 tickets can be reserved for each tour...

As we started our ascent, we encountered a whole group of French people coming for the next tour.

Now we continued to Alghero, where we parked at the harbor and then went to the old town.

The walls and bastions of the old town were built by the Catalans in the 14th century. Catalan is still spoken in Alghero today, and the street signs are also in two languages.

We explored the old town with its small alleyways and arched doorways.

Then we walked outside the fortress walls around the old town, overlooking the sea.

After spending some time in the beautiful city, we drove back towards Palau.

But along the way, we made two more stops: First, we stopped at the church of Santissima Trinità di Saccárgia.

With its black and white stripes, it is a landmark of Sardinia.

It stands next to the highway, surrounded by meadows.

There used to be a monastery next to the church, but today only some ruins are left.

Since we still had some time, we wanted to make another stop in Chiaramonti, where we had discovered an old castle ruin on Google Maps.

Unfortunately, Google lost track of us during the approach and we ended up in one of the streets that were way too narrow, so we had to reverse back out.

With a lot of effort and adrenaline, we managed to get back to the main road (without any scratches) and decided to park at the large parking lot near the swimming pool, from where we started the steep climb to the fortress on foot.

The 'Castello dei Doria' was built in the 14th century by the Genoese noble family Doria when they were involved in the war for supremacy in this area.

Today, only remnants of the former church remain.

However, a small park with benches and a beautiful view has been created on the former fortress grounds.

After the visit and a short break, we drove back to Palau.