What is Badesi known for?

Eight-kilometer Bandiera Blu beach of dunes and juniper between Isola Rossa and the Coghinas, the longest in northern Gallura. Inside the only DOCG zone in Sardinia, Vermentino producers on granite-rich hillsides, the commune holds the Città del Vino designation. EU-protected marshland and river mouth where Gallura ends and Anglona begins, nesting site for migratory and marsh birds.

Badesi is a comune in the province of Sassari, Sardinia region of Italy, about 47 kilometers from Sassari.

Sardinia · Sassari

Badesi

A Gallura commune founded by shepherding families in the 1700s, with eight kilometers of dunes between Isola Rossa and the Coghinas river.

47 km / 29 mi

Nearest hub (Sassari)

1,821

Population

May–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Badesi sits on a hillabove the Gulf of Asinara, with municipal territory running north to the dunes and reaching down to the Coghinas river, the natural boundary between Gallura and Anglona. The village formed in the eighteenth century, when shepherding families settled in a Spanish baron's fief and gathered around the Sacro Cuore church built in the early twentieth century. Badesi became an autonomous comune in 1969. The vineyards on the surrounding hills sit inside the Vermentino di Gallura DOCG zone, the only DOCG in Sardinia, and the commune holds the Città del Vino designation. The beach at Li Junchi runs eight kilometers along the coast from the cliffs of Isola Rossa to the Coghinas mouth, granite-fed white sand backed by juniper-covered dunes. It carries the Bandiera Blu, awarded for water quality and beach management. The coastline behind the dunes is a protected EU site for migratory and marsh birds nesting along the river reeds.

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Gallery

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Known for

Spiaggia di Li Junchi
Eight-kilometer beach of fine white sand and juniper-covered dunes from Isola Rossa to the Coghinas mouth, holder of the Bandiera Blu.
Vermentino di Gallura vineyards
Hilltop vineyards inside the only DOCG zone in Sardinia, white-wine producers concentrated north and west of the village.
Foce del Coghinas
River mouth marking the boundary between Gallura and Anglona, an EU-protected site for migratory birds nesting in the reed beds.
Chiesa del Sacro Cuore
Early twentieth-century parish church around which the modern village formed, the original civic anchor of Badesi.
Isola Rossa headland
Red porphyry headland west of Badesi, frazione of Trinità d'Agultu, named for the red rocks visible from the coast road.

When to visit

Best months · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through October is the season at Li Junchi. The sea is swimmable from mid-May, the dunes are walkable, and the vineyards on the hills above the beach work through their cycle from flowering to September harvest. July and August are crowded with Italian, German, and French families, and the Delphina resorts above the dunes fill. April and October are the open windows: warm enough for the beach on still days, empty enough to have it. The Vermentino di Gallura is at its best young, drunk through the summer in the agriturismi between the village and the coast. November through March is quiet and damp, with the Coghinas in full flow and the birdlife at its peak in the river marshes.