Well known luxury airline Ryanair flew me back into Luton from the northern Sardinian airport of Alghero.  It is something of a typical British welcome when arriving back the first thing you hear on the station is ‘we are sorry for the delay due to technical difficulties…’ Do we need a British Mussolini before our trains will run to time? For the rail operating companies to blame their breakdowns and disorganisation on too many people using the train (as they do) is positively ribald.

The trip to Sardinia was well organised (thanks to Max ,Tamara and Delphina Hotels) but as it covered the Costa Smeralda region rather than just the hotels it put quite a strain on my ability to gather enough photographs of the interiors to do justice to the charming properties. However, I am home with over 500 photos to process, catalogue and sort. The journalistic company was generally youthfully pleasant although a few barbed remarks were made about the fashion sense of old men…

Clear warm seas, large yachts and super yachts, power boats and RIBS

Whilst touring Delphina hotels was the main purpose, we had some downtime on the beach and a few visits to towns, including a cruise around the islands northern tip where France meets Italy, Corsica meeting Sardinia. I certainly recommend taking your glasses off before diving over the side of your boat into 3 metres of clear blue sea. I was lucky both that mine didn’t break and that a quick dive located and returned them to me.

Absolution from the Priest on Sunday then down to the local bars to start another week building enough to confess the next Sunday. Vernacular architecture enmbraces, warms and comforts the sinner

The loveliness of the small Italian towns on the shoreline with their vernacular architecture and cafes along the waterfront made an interesting comparison with our own separation from the beach. There is no tide to speak of in the Mediterranean and that makes a considerable difference to how the shoreline can be exploited – with a 6 to 7 metre tidal variation there is a considerable difference in how the sea is approached from the English towns especially when factoring in the ferocious waves of the Atlantic or the North Sea. But nothing can remove the weather from the equation. Warm seas need plenty of sun, and Sardinia has that along with beautiful sandy beaches and clear blue seas. The softer sunnier shores of the Mediterranean allow exploitation to proceed differently, but this environmental difference does not explain the differences on its own.

Colourful alleyways, abundant flowers and a sense of fun

History has also played a large part in influencing layouts. Whilst Sardinia has its defensive towers dating back to Aragon and wars against the Moors, England faced invasion right through until the middle of the 20th Century. So the ancient and colourful buildings of say Cala Gavetta have no comparable equivalents to the centre of Seaford for example, which was demolished in 1940 by bombs from an errant Dornier.

An Aragoniste Tower for defence against the Moors provide picturesque views against the blue sea

What warfare did not destroy bad road/town planning and appalling architecture have joined forces to destroy at the English seaside. Many coastal resorts are ruined by poor infrastructure – improvements to road access to the Sussex coast for example have been proposed since 1971 but pusillanimous politicians and Department of Transport uncivil servants have resulted in total lethargy and nothing being achieved – only now is the M23 being completed after 30 years of dithering, whilst the M27 was stillborn in Sussex.

Maretello Tower in Seaford provides a reminder of our military past as do the pill boxes on the golf course. Of course the Museum was closed when this picture was taken

Seaside towns like Hastings have suffered a decline because of the lack of will to remedy the infrastructure problems – something repeated through the decaying towns of the North as the smug Westminster village travels on its £50billion worth of London infrastructure improvements. Sardinia may have problems but nothing of decay is evident. Perhaps it benefits from being an island, having a strong identity and self-awareness.  Much of the English coast suffers from the myopic focus on London. It’s not all to do with the weather.

The English vernacular and the English cottage garden. So much of our culture is private not public

Perhaps England needs another Wat Tyler rather than a Mussolini?

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