Harnessing the magnetic energy of the Emerald Coast
SAN PANTALEO, Sardinia -- Rosella Marchese and Luigi Bergeretto took a long route towards their Sardinian Dream but they finally achieved it.
Ms Marchese spent childhood holidays in northern Sardinia but then was involved in architectural projects in Italy and beyond it.
As a boy Luigi lived with his parents at Leopoldville in Congo but returned to Italy to qualify as a medical doctor. However cooking had always been his passion and in the 90s he opened a restaurant which led to him becoming a pioneer TV chef with the RAI Uno Mattina program. In 1996 he became chef of a large hotel complex on Canouan island in the Caribbean where Rosella accompanied him. In four years he opened five restaurants in the complex and won an award for running the best Italian restaurant in the Caribbean.
It was a testing time and he was happy to return with Rosella to Italy. He opened a restaurant near Porto Cervo but they saw the possibilities of seven undulating hectares at San Pantaleo, a charming village, above the Emerald Coast and bought them in 2001. They look towards rugged, granite mountains with jagged peaks and down on the Maddalena archipelago which seems a series of stepping stones to Corsica. The island of Caprera, Giuseppe Garibaldi’s last home, is part of the archipelago. Lord Nelson patrolled these waters carrying the fight to Napoleon near his Corsican birthplace.
Luigi and Rosella began their Petra Segreta resort with 13 rooms but now it has 23 and four suites each with its own private pool. It is a member of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux group.
Luigi oversees its’ two restaurants, one for gourmet meals, the other a more homely Osteria. Massages are available in a typical Balinese house, there is a communal swimming pool and sauna if one does not want to go the beaches five kilometers away.
Rosella’s architectural experience has been put to good purpose in the low- slung buildings, both the central complex which looks down on the Maddalena islands and the individual apartments which nestle fragrant vegetation and granite boulders. The furnishings are appropriately rustic but the air-conditioned rooms have free Wi Fi.
Petra Segreta has a motor yacht for excursions in the archipelago and lunch can be prepared on board. Excursions can also be arranged in yachts and catamaran. Golf can be played at the swish Pevero Club, the resort has its own helicopter pad from which trips can be made. Rock-climbing, horse riding, wind and kite surfing and deep sea fishing are all available.
But perhaps the most distinctive feature is the proximity of remains of the Bronze Age civilization roughly contemporary to Stonehenge. It is claimed that that this is an initziatic zone of subtle but beneficial magnetic energies and trips to the sites of ruins are arranged on this basis. Whatever the truth of these claims, there are intriguing ruins such as the so-called Graves of the Giants. One of the most striking sites is La Prisgiona where a surprising, stone cone-shaped tower rises which was was inhabited and surrounded by deposits for various victuals. In other words it was a proto-town dating from over a thousand years before Christ.
No wonder when the ancient Romans arrived they thought this was the command post for the region.
Petra Segreta: www.petrasegretaresort.com
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