Cala Ficaiola

Cala Ficaiola is a cove of about three hundred metres on the Costa Smeralda, in the commune of Arzachena in north-eastern Sardinia — pale granite sand between weathered rock, shallow and sheltered, with easy entry and water of the clarity that gave the coast its name.

The cove is one of a series along a shoreline that was farmland until 1962, when a consortium led by the Aga Khan bought it and developed it under an architectural code: low buildings, local stone, no advertising, controlled colours, and a road network deliberately made confusing to slow traffic. That code is why this coast looks as it does. It is context for this cove rather than a description of it — the code governs sixty kilometres of shoreline and this is three hundred metres of them.

Wind from the north-west picks up sharply through the afternoon, which is why the sailing out of Porto Cervo is serious and why the cove is calmest before noon. The granite behind holds the heat and there is no shade on the sand after the middle of the day. Italian law makes the beach public and it is walkable end to end; the practical constraint is parking, which is limited and informal and full by ten in August.

The club economy this coast is known for is not on this sand. It is in the bays either side — Cala di Volpe, Romazzino, Baja Sardinia — and Ficaiola is one of the coves people go to when those are full or when they would rather not pay for a day. That is the cove's character and the reason it is in this register: not what was built on the coast, but what the coast looks like where nothing was.

Three hundred metres of granite and pale sand, public, unshaded, and quiet by the standards of a shoreline that is famous for not being. Come before noon or in September, park early or walk in, and understand that the Costa Smeralda's reputation was made in bays that are not this one.