Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means the castle. It has about 160,000 inhabitants, or about 350,000 including the suburbs (metropolitan area) (Elmas, Selargius, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu Sant'Elena).
The old part of the city (called Castello, the castle) lies on top of a hill, with a wonderful view of the Gulf of Cagliari (also known as Angels Gulf). Most of its city walls are intact, and feature the two 13th century white lime-stone towers, St. Pancras tower and the Elephant tower. The local white lime-stone was also used to build the walls of the city and many builidings. D.H. Lawrence, in his lively memoir of a voyage to Sardinia, Sea and Sardinia, undertaken in January 1921, described the effect of the warm Mediterranean sun-light on the white lime-stone city and compared Cagliari to a "white Jerusalem". Cagliari has one of the longest beaches in an Italian town. The Poetto beach stretches for 13 km. and was famous for its white fine-grained sand. A recent controversial intervention to save the beach from erosion has slightly altered the original texture of the sand. Cagliari has one of the largest fish markets in all of Italy with a vast array of fish for sale to both the public and trade.
Cagliari has some peculiar gastronomic traditions. Many dishes are based on the wide variety of fish and sea food available, for example, burrida. Although it is possible to trace influences from Spanish gastronomy, Cagliaritanian food has a distintctive and unique character. Very good wines are also part of Cagliaritanians' dinners: excellent wines are in fact produced in the nearby vineyards of the Campidano plain.
