Sardinia
This Italian island boasts some of Europe’s best beaches. The sand on the Costa Smeralda (pictured) is so white and fine, and the iridescent waters are so calm and impossibly clear, that the Aga Khan made it a jetset playground in the 1960s. The La Maddalena archipelago, off the coast, is an antidote to the glitz. It’s a place frozen in time, where the beaches are sensationally beautiful, with barely a footprint on them, protected as part of a nature reserve, and dreamlike lagoons where you can pootle around in boats and marvel at the clarity and color. Cala Soraya on the uninhabited island of Spargi and Cala Coticcio on the pristine island of Caprera are two of Italy’s best beaches. On the island of Budelli, Mauro, a septuagenarian who guards the powdery-pink shores of Spiaggia Rosa, is a real-life Robinson Crusoe.