Cagliari is the capital and largest city of Sardinia, set on a broad bay on the south coast of the island, and has been the island's main harbour since Phoenician times — a line of continuous occupation that runs through the Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Pisans, Aragonese and Spanish, all of whom left their marks on the city. For most travellers it is the main arrival point in Sardinia, either by air (the airport is 8 km from the centre) or by the overnight ferries from the Italian mainland (Civitavecchia, Naples, Palermo, Livorno).
The old city rises in four distinct hilltop quarters above the modern port. The highest is Castello, the medieval citadel built by the Pisans in the 13th century and ringed by honey-coloured fortifications. Walk up through the Bastione di Saint Remy (with its vast terrace and sweeping view over the harbour) to the Cathedral of Santa Maria and the two surviving Pisan towers — the Torre dell'Elefante and the Torre di San Pancrazio — which you can still climb for the view. Just below Castello, the old Roman amphitheatre is cut directly into the rock of the hillside, and the National Archaeological Museum holds the best collection of Sardinia's mysterious Nuragic bronzes, little Bronze Age warrior figurines that are the signature of the island's prehistoric culture.
Below the citadel, the older and quieter quarters of Marina, Stampace and Villanova wind down to the port through narrow streets and small piazzas. Outside the old city, the 5th-century Basilica di San Saturnino is the oldest surviving Christian church on the island. South of the centre, Poetto beach — 8 km of pale sand backed by a saline lagoon where pink flamingoes live year-round — is where the city swims. The Tuvixeddu necropolis west of the centre is the largest Phoenician-Punic burial ground in the Mediterranean. Cagliari is a good base for a first week in Sardinia: enough city to keep you occupied for a few days, enough beach and hinterland to remind you why you came.