"Calasetta, Sardegna" a Calasetta Travel Page by giampiero6

Calasetta is a magnificent and beautiful spot on the small island, L'isola di Sant' Antioco, off the Southwestern Tip of Sardinia. It features beautiful little half moon beaches, superb water, some of the best food in the world and an open, relaxed and friendly folk. This place is the very essence of Mediterranean. It's dazzling sun glinting off turqoise water. It's perfumed arid landscape that comes alive at dawn. Long warm nights, brilliant colors, scents and tastes. Come here once and you'll never want to leave.

Calasetta is a quiet, lovely little spot where the pace of life is still dictated by the rhythms of the earth and sea, the seasons. It's full over wonderful, friendly, warm and open people. In the summer on cool evenings, the piazza and main street is filled with people strolling, chatting, flirting, from small children to 80 year olds. Groups of singers and guitar players stroll around serenading citizens on their balconies until all hours of the night. Times change, but I hope this place never does too much.

By Italian standards, Calasetta is a relatively recent settlement dating to the 1700's. The town was settled by Genoese colonists who had been expelled from the Tunisian island of Tabarka. (not the city) and later Piedmontese. The local dialect is still a kind of Genoese called Tabarkino that is spoken only here and in the town of Carloforte.