Near the Costa Smeralda and Olbia is San Pantaleo, here is a trekking route for adventure lovers in Sardinia.
It's early in the morning and you're ready to start. While you are waiting for a coffee and around you look at the photos hanging on the walls, the latter covered with rocks. The photos portray the town in the past decades, before and after the advent of tourism in this pile of houses that seem to have stood still in time, surrounded by luxuriant nature and Sardinian granite. We are a San Pantaleo, a small town one step away from Costa Smeralda and from the cities of Olbia and Arzachena, in Sardinia.
The town is small and there is no problem in identifying the road that leads us to the trekking route around the granite towers. The main street of San Pantaleo is called "Via Zara", arrived at the curve that divides the avenue, turn left into via Pompei. Walk for two hundred meters and take the second street on the left. On satellite navigators it will be Via Alessandro Manzoni but in reality it is Via Stazzu Manzoni. I recommend to leave the car in the country since it is almost useless to get to the dirt road by car (as there are no guarded places to leave it).
After having traveled that road, an easily passable dirt road will begin until you reach the stazzo, Stazzu Manzoni, in fact.
The stazzo - o stazzu - it is the typical Gallura country house; it usually has a rectangular shape, with simple but very characteristic lines.
Before starting a trekking route it is good to organize yourself with the right crew which, if you are a beginner, you can find in the lists in specialized sites. Part of the budget is made up of location system and route map, two things you can easily find in the application "View Ranger”, Available for free on the stores. The application allows you to view all the hiking trails, but for those interested in having the tracking (gpx file) of this specific route, please contact me.
The actual route begins in the clearing in front of the stazzo. If you have doubts and cannot find your way around, position yourself with your back attached to the door and, exactly in front of you, you will find the path (the plants can grow up to hide the path but continue straight and you will find the beaten path). We will begin the climb that will cover a difference in height of 400 meters in height, skirting the huge granite formations that characterize this area. Of which the highest peaks have taken on multi-shaped aspects due to the winds that blow almost incessantly in this area. The weather it is one of the aspects that must be taken into consideration since even a light rain can make the rocks and more slippery, so better check the forecasts before venturing!
The trekking path is not signposted and when you are unsure where to continue, it is better to look around, the path is dotted with small pyramid-shaped rock compositions or stacked to signal the way to the hiker. By following the GPS directions plus these handcrafted mounts, it will be easy to follow the road. After two hours of walking among granite characterized by tafoni with exceptional shapes, a luxuriant Mediterranean scrub and the silence that only certain places can give, you arrive at a stony ground where you can have lunch on the rocks overlooking the valley that dominates the territory of Arzachena to a 'height of about 300m.
On your return, do not miss the opportunity to visit the country. San Pantaleo it is a small community of about two thousand inhabitants. The town is renowned for having maintained many of the characteristics of a Gallura town, due to the lifestyle and the center of the town, preserved and enhanced.
