Sardinia: An Island Worth Exploring

This is where you want to stay if you're visiting Sardinia for the first time.
Located on Sardinia's east coast, Baunei is a small town located in the steep mountain Province of Ogliastra and was once one of the most remote towns in Sardinia. Even now, the natural landscape gives it natural protection, making many of the famous beaches in the area only reachable by boat or long hikes.
Santa Maria Navarrese staggers along the low hill to the sea, culminating in a pretty port on the coast of Baunei, acclaimed as one of the most stunning coasts of Sardinia. It is a frazione of Baunei, meaning it is administratively part of that city, but Santa Maria Navarrese does bear a mention and visit in its own right.
Legend holds that the town was named by a Spanish princess who arrived from Navarra Spain. She ran away with her beloved when her father refused his consent of marriage. The couple were tossed in a terrible tempest and found shelter in the protected bay. In gratitude for safe landing and survival, the princess named the place in honor of the Virgin Mary and added her hometown name. It is said she had the church built in thanks and devotion to the Madonna. The church is just a few meters from the sea and the "spiaggia centrale" beach. The coastal watch tower is dubbed Torre Spagnola, a circular structure right at the water, built in the 1500s during the Spanish rule and rebuilt in the 1700s.
THE "SPANISH TOWER"
The Spanish tower of Santa Maria Navarrese is clear evidence of how seriously this area regarded the problem of pirate raids, which frequently harassed the coast between Villaputzu and Arbatax. Nowadays, there are 93 coastal towers along the Sardinian coast: the first were built in the time of Charles V (1516-1556) in the mid-sixteenth century, but it was during the reign of his successor Philip II (1556-1598) that the defence system became institutionalised, with the establishment of a special “Royal Administration of towers” in 1581, which in addition to overseeing the design and construction of new towers, also managed the costs and repairs of existing ones in detail. The Spanish tower of St. Mary, curiously known as the “Saracen tower” despite having been built in order to combat piracy, was built around 1591according to historians, when the towers along the Sardinian coast numbered forty in all. Built on a small promontory that separates the Central beach from that of St. John, the tower has direct visual contact with the one at Arbatax, a logistical solution that allowed the garrisons on duty in the two buildings to monitor the entire gulf. Documents of the “Royal Administration of Towers” show that these two were among those armed with cannons. The soldiers serving at the coastal towers had to be alert both during the day and at night, as specified in the “Annual Report on the Administration of the towers”, dated 29 January 1798, in which it was recommended to have ready “kindling in order to perform, in case of sightings, fire signals at night and smoke signals by day” on the terrace.
In 1833, Angius found the tower of Santa Maria Navarrese still armed and “guarded by a governor with a gunner and some soldiers”. The truncated-conical shaped tower has a domed ceiling with a pillar and is on three levels. On the ground floor, a large door provides access to an ample living room, while the first and second floors can be reached via an outside staircase that ends in front of the door of the first floor entrance. It is possible to climb up to the second floor by a narrow ladder against a wall; another series of steps leads to the terrace. In the sixties, the tower was used as an office and was used by the Italian Finance Police for a long time. Since the eighties, thanks to a kind of popular uprising, the tower is back under the control of the municipality of Baunei. It can only currently