Italy’s strongest chess tournament returns from April 26 to May 3 at the ITI Marina Beach Hotel & Resort in Orosei Featuring three competitive categories and a total prize pool of €50,100 the festival promises thrilling matches and international participation Chek 2024 Edtion Final report by Shahid Ahmed / ChessBase India Registration is now open - Registrations will be reassessed based on the April ELO rating list update - Players with an ELO over 2450 are exempt from paying the registration fee - The Organizing Committee reserves the right to accept up to 10 wild cards per open for players with insufficient ELO Requests to participate in a different tournament category must be submitted via email - Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves with a 30-second increment starting from the first move The following tiebreak criteria will be used at the end of the tournament: Half-point byes will be assigned according to the Italian Chess Federation Technical Regulations Check the Last Year Photo Album : Photo's  by Niklesh Jain Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Fide 100 Celebration  Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9 Prize Function visit the official website or contact the organizing committee via email Details Tournament details We have launched the ChessBase India App. Check out this amazing resource! Android for now - Download the app now Follow Tweets by @ChessbaseIndia ChessBase India is proud to be the official partner of chessbase.com reporting on events in India Like our Facebook page for more Indian chess updates The all new ChessBase Premium Account which gives you access to ten amazing online ChessBase services like PlayChess Become a part of the ever-growing ChessBase India Youtube Channel. Subscribe now and stay update with our awesome video content.  Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker All News FIDE News Chess News Top Top Federations Main Page / Search Tournaments Titles Transfers Calculators Download FIDE Circuit Women's Events '24-'25 Open Cycle 2025-2026 Women’s Cycle 2025-2026 Women’s Cycle 2023-2025 All Tournaments Main Events About FIDE Handbook Documents Financial Reports Officials Commissions & Committees Federations Affiliated Organizations Affiliated Members Honourable Dignitaries Chart Daniel Dardha secures title in the main event The inaugural edition of the Sardinia World Chess Festival organized by EmmediSport together with Unichess under the technical guidance of GM-IO Roberto Mogranzini took place on the beautiful island of Sardinia (ITA) in Orosei at the IT Marina beach resort from April 27 to May 4 and Volodar Murzin – scored final-round victories and finished with 7/9 GM Daniel Dardha of Belgium claimed the title thanks to superior tiebreaks President Italian Chess Federation Luigi Maggi President Sardinia Chess Federation Danilo Mallò Open A – complete standings A renowned streamer chess player with a massive global following of over 5 million fans Alexandra Botez dominated the field in Open B with an impressive score of 8.5 out of 9 points Open B – complete standings Sun Hanyu of China emerged victorious in the Open C tournament marking a triumphant debut on the global stage Open C – complete standings With 296 players representing over 40 nations participating the Sardinia Chess Festival stands as a testament to its widespread appeal and position as a premier event in the chess calendar The festival became possible thanks to the support of the Sardegna Scacchi Committee of the Italian Chess Federation led by President Danilo Mallo and the support of the Sardinian Region Tourism Department and the Orosei Municipality Special thanks go to the event sponsors: It Marina Beach the FIDE centenary (FIDE100) was celebrated with its motto displayed in the gaming hall Deputy FIDE chair Dana Reizniece-Ozola visited the event Several events were held to celebrate FIDE’s 100th anniversary from the black-and-white dinner to the five-a-side football match between tournament participants to the 960 chess evening Deputy FIDE chair Dana Reizniece-Ozola and GM-IO Roberto Mogranzini © 2025 FIDE International Chess Federation stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means) without the written permission of FIDE International Chess Federation Where there’s water, there’s life. That’s the case on Earth, at least, and also why scientists remain tantalized by any evidence suggesting there’s liquid water on cold, dry Mars. The Red Planet is a difficult place to look for liquid water: While water ice is plentiful, any water warm enough to be liquid on the surface would last for only a few moments before turning into vapor in Mars’ wispy air. Hence the interest generated in 2018, when a team led by Roberto Orosei of Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica announced they had found evidence of subsurface lakes deep below the ice cap at Mars’ south pole. The evidence they cited came from a radar instrument aboard the ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Express orbiter. The colored dots represent sites where bright radar reflections have been spotted by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter at Mars’ south polar cap Such reflections were previously interpreted as subsurface liquid water but their prevalence and proximity to the frigid surface suggest they may be something else change as they’re reflected off different materials they produced especially bright signals beneath the polar cap that could be interpreted as liquid water The possibility of a potentially habitable environment for microbes was exciting But after taking a closer look at the data along with experiments in a cold laboratory here on Earth a trio of new papers have unraveled the mystery – and may have dried up the lakes hypothesis Martian polar scientists belong to a small, tight-knit community. Not long after the lakes paper was published, about 80 of those scientists met for the International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration in Ushuaia, a seaside village at the southern tip of Argentina. Lots of talk centered on the subsurface lakes How much heat would it take to keep water liquid under all that ice Could brine be lowering the freezing point of the water enough to keep it liquid Isaac Smith of Toronto’s York University bundled up while working in a lab freezing smectite clays with liquid nitrogen to test how they respond to radar signals The results have challenged the hypothesis that subsurface lakes can be found at Mars’ south pole several scientists began thinking up ways to test the subsurface-lakes hypothesis “There was a feeling that we should try to address this,” said Isaac Smith of York University in Toronto who organized the conference in Ushuaia and led the most recent study showing that clays can explain the observations Among those scientists was Plaut. He and Aditya Khuller, an Arizona State University doctoral student who was interning at JPL, analyzed 44,000 radar echoes from the base of the polar cap across 15 years of MARSIS data. They turned up dozens more bright reflections like the ones in the 2018 study. But in their recent paper published in Geophysical Research Letters they found many of these signals in areas close to the surface where it should be too cold for water to remain liquid a kind of salt commonly found on Mars that can lower the freezing temperature of water Two separate teams of scientists then analyzed the radar signals to determine whether anything else could be producing those signals Carver Bierson of ASU completed a theoretical study suggesting several possible materials that could cause the signals knowing that a group of clays called smectites were present all over Mars third paper: He measured smectite properties in a lab Smectites look like ordinary rock but were formed by liquid water long ago Smith put several smectite samples into a cylinder designed to measure how radar signals would interact with them freezing them to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius) – close to what they would be at the Martian south pole and pumping liquid nitrogen into the room made it colder After freezing the clay samples, Smith found their response nearly perfectly matched the MARSIS radar observations. Then, he and his team checked for clays present on Mars near those radar observations. They relied on data from MRO, which carries a mineral mapper called the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer, or CRISM Smith found smectites scattered in the vicinity of the south pole’s ice cap Smith’s team demonstrated that frozen smectite can make the reflections – no unusual amounts of salt or heat are required – and that they’re present at the south pole There’s no way to confirm what the bright radar signals are without landing at Mars’ south pole and digging through miles of ice But the recent papers have offered plausible explanations that are more logical than liquid water we often are just inching our way closer to the truth,” Plaut said “The original paper didn’t prove it was water But we try to narrow down the possibilities as much as possible in order to reach consensus.” To read more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html manages the MRO mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel led the work to build the CRISM instrument and operates CRISM in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov NASA’s Juno Mission Gets Under Jupiter’s and Io’s Surface Mars. NASA Orbiter Spots Curiosity Rover Making Tracks to Next Science Stop Solar System. NASA’s EZIE Mission Captures ‘First Light’ Mars. NASA’s Curiosity Rover May Have Solved Mars’ Missing Carbonate Mystery Mars. NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Studies Trove of Rocks on Crater Rim Solar System. NASA’s Juno Back to Normal Operations After Entering Safe Mode Mars. Perseverance Rover Witnesses One Martian Dust Devil Eating Another Mars. How NASA’s Perseverance Is Helping Prepare Astronauts for Mars Mars. NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars Stars and Galaxies. NASA Launches Missions to Study Sun, Universe’s Beginning Explore MoreQUIZZES. Image. Juno's JIRAM Captures Hots Spots on Io Image. Juno Sees Turbulence in Jupiter's Atmosphere Image. Curiosity Looks Downslope From the Sulfate Unit Image. Curiosity on the Road to Boxwork Formations Image. Image. “Is dangerous coast,” says Francesco He points north across turquoise sea toward the shadowy coastal mountains we will reach tomorrow “Cinque-cento meters.” He sets down his paddle and lifts his palms I convert Castilian-influenced Italiano into Español “Fifteen-hundred foot cliffs?” “Exactly.” Francesco's a compact man with midnight-black hair emerging from a white bandana and reddish-brown Mediterranean skin that turns each sunny afternoon from deep tan to piercing crimson we turn south along granite headlands cooked to a crisp orange by relentless sun Francesco paddles through a narrow passageway between granite outcroppings He scrapes his fingertips against wave-smoothed rock I let the others pass while considering Francesco's warning testing a boat I'm still adjusting to Today is a warm-up tour of the granite coast south of Cardedu before I head north for two days into Gulf of Orosei and Gennargentu National Park I requested an easy first day to bring my girlfriend Ina When Ina's German cousin planned her wedding for Sardinia which Francesco started twenty years ago to offer paddling trips and classes for locals and foreigners alike so in my inquiry I didn't specify my usual type of kayaking We paddle a kilometer toward a hundred-foot promontory I notice nervousness from Ina at this wavy I try to pretend I'm not nervous myself ruddering his boat in sinuous curves toward shore My boat slides onto baseball-sized rocks with several thuds a few of us scramble up the promontory through macchia—the prickly Mediterranean brush of oak and juniper that blankets the island to head height but stems of jasmine exude a calming floral aroma cutting between a mainland cliff and cubic rock island a three-foot wave crashes into her cockpit I seal my spray skirt as seawater crashes onto my legs cresting a wave and slapping down the backside After rounding the whitecaps of the promontory which pours undulating water into the five-foot slot Ada calmly turns her paddle like a jousting spear and enters kayaks surge atop dampened wave pulses through the crevasse Embedded in the orange feldspar of the walls little specks of translucent quartz catch rays from the setting sun and glimmer like the surface of the sea Page 2: When a kayaking trip becomes worth it → The early sports climbing pioneers were Giuseppe Garippa from nearby Oliena and Bruno Pederiva from the Trentino region of Northern Italy A few years after their first climbs the area began to be developed systematically by famous Sardinian climber Enzo Lecis who created Settore Afghanistan the crag below the summit of Monte Tuttavista as well as the cave that faces seawards called Conca Arrubia Lecis received support and gear from Sos Alinos the campsite close to Orosei that has always believed in climbing and alternative sports In 2007 the Galtellì town council funded a few more routes at Settore Afghanistan as well the first multi-pitch routes up the Conca Niedda face located above the road that leads from Galtellì to Orosei These routes were put up by Giampaolo Mocci and myself but of the 5 we had planned only 2 were completed because the funds ran out and they were never reported about in the media During the last few years the Sos Alinos campsite took things into its own hands once again and helped the climbing development by funding the new routes at Conca Arrubia and the easy new sector Pizzinnos that lies on the path that leads to the Conca Arrubia cave The latest chapter of this short Orosei story is the creation of a new multi-pitch climb in the Onifai countryside just 10 minutes away from Orosei and up a beautiful granite outcrop that a stone's throw from the Sardinian coastline I embarked on this latest adventure together with Giovanni Manconi and Fabio Erriu It seems unlikely that Orosei will be able to contend the title of becoming the island's climbing queen slowly but surely it may become a fine alternative especially for those who love golden sandy beaches and a reasonable priced by Maurizio Oviglia Using radar to probe the polar ice caps of Mars, scientists have detected an underground reservoir of liquid that may be saltwater and that extends for about 20 kilometers in length. The results provide some resolution to a decades-long debate over whether a sizable body of liquid water is present on Mars "Water is considered one of the fundamental requirements for life This is the first stable body of liquid water ever found on Mars and it could be considered a potential habitat," explained Roberto Orosei a lead scientist at the Institute of Radioastronomy in Italy who analyzed the data The Red Planet was likely once rich in liquid water much like Earth Traces of water have been found in its atmosphere and leeching through its soils but efforts to locate bodies of water — a likely place to find life as we know it — have not yet been successful the Mars Express spacecraft was used to conduct a radar survey of a region called Planum Australe A tool onboard the spacecraft sends radar pulses that penetrate the surface and ice caps of the planet and reflections off subsurface features provide scientists with information about what lies below Orosei and colleagues obtained 29 sets of radar samplings mapping out an area exhibiting a very sharp change in its associated radar signal just under a mile (about 1.5 kilometers) below the surface of the ice and extending laterally for about 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) The radar profile of this area is similar to that of lakes of liquid water found beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth suggesting that there is a subglacial lake at this location on Mars that any other explanation for the very strong [radar] echoes were not very tenable in light of the evidence that we had available So we had to conclude that there is water on Mars Although the temperature of the lake is expected to be below the freezing point of pure water the research team notes that salts of magnesium calcium and sodium — known to be present in Martian rocks — could be dissolved in the water to form a brine Together with the pressure of the overlying ice allowing the lake to remain liquid as happens on Earth Orosei said that this subsurface body of water is at least as cold as 14° Fahrenheit (minus 10°Celsius but could be as low as minus 76°F (minus 60°C) "This is certainly not a very pleasant environment for life … However water is salty and there are single-cell organisms that survive in such an environment with a metabolism that makes use of the salts in the water," he said Much more work needs to be done to confirm that the lake is liquid water and there is no evidence yet that life exists in the lake "Getting [to the reservoir] and acquiring the final evidence that this is indeed a lake will not be an easy task which is capable of drilling through 1.5 kilometers of ice And this will certainly require some technological developments that Orosei said it will be important to keep acquiring raw data from the Martian poles "A single body of water could be a quirk of nature but the existence of many lakes would indicate that subglacial water is a common occurrence and that could mean that liquid water was present on Mars throughout most of its geological history," he said "This finding would have profound implications on the potential biological evolution of the planet." Our ability to provide a voice for scientists and engineers and to advance science depends on the support from individuals like you Give together we can be a united voice for scientific progress.  Join A ground-penetrating radar aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite has found evidence for a pool of liquid water buried under layers of ice and dust at the red planet’s south pole “This subsurface anomaly on Mars has radar properties matching water or water-rich sediments,” said Roberto Orosei principal investigator of the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument lead author of a paper in the journal Science describing the discovery The conclusion is based on observations of a relatively small area of Mars but “it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere Scientists have long theorised the presence of subsurface pools under the martian poles where the melting point of water could be decreased due to the weight of overlying layers of ice The presence of salts in the Martian soil also would act to reduce the melting point and keep water liquid even at sub-freezing temperatures Earlier observations by MARSIS were inconclusive but researchers developed new techniques to improve resolution and accuracy “We’d seen hints of interesting subsurface features for years but we couldn’t reproduce the result from orbit to orbit because the sampling rates and resolution of our data was previously too low,” said Andrea Cicchetti “We had to come up with a new operating mode to bypass some onboard processing and trigger a higher sampling rate and thus improve the resolution of the footprint of our dataset Now we see things that simply were not possible before.” MARSIS works by firing penetrating radar beams at the surface of Mars and then measuring the strength of the signals as they are reflected back to the spacecraft The data indicating water came from a 200-kilometre-wide (124-mile-wide) area that shows the south polar region features multiple layers of ice and dust down to a depth of about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 miles) A particularly bright reflection below the layered deposits can be seen in a zone measuring about 20 kilometres (12 miles) across Orosei’s team interprets the bright reflection as the interface between overlying ice and a pool or pond of liquid water The pool must be at least several centimetres thick for the MARSIS instrument to detect it and the exhausting effort made by the radar team to overcome many analytical challenges demonstrating that the mission and its payload still have a great science potential,” says Dmitri Titov The discovery is significant because it raises the possibility of potentially habitable sub-surface environments “Some forms of microbial life are known to thrive in Earth’s subglacial environments sediment-rich liquid water on Mars also provide a suitable habitat either now or in the past?” ESA asked in a statement “Whether life has ever existed on Mars remains an open question.” Weather data from NASA’s InSight Mars lander is now posted daily, allowing armchair astronauts to better appreciate conditions on the red planet. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured an image of the ‘tattoo’ on its arm, with the rocks at the base of Mount Sharp as a backdrop. Researchers have found remnants of ancient ice sheets buried up to a mile below Mars’ northern polar cap, a record of seasonal climate change on the red planet. By Sarah Leach An artist’s impression of Mars Express probing the Red Planet Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga – Media INAF Satellite data suggests there is a large lake of liquid water hidden under a thick layer of surface ice Although Mars is too cold for pure liquid water to survive magnesium and sodium salts which lower its freezing point These could keep water liquid at temperatures as low as -74°C Unlike previous findings of water on Mars, which were either frozen or highly seasonal this reservoir appears to be permanently liquid “It’s the only place where water persists for a long time,” says Roberto Orosei at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Bologna Orosei and his colleagues used the Mars Express satellite to look below the planet’s southern ice cap 20 kilometres across and 1.5 km beneath the surface appeared brighter in subsurface radar images than its surroundings The lake could potentially host life, despite the extreme cold and salinity, as microbes survive on Earth in similar conditions “It is not a place where life would be expected to have an easy time but it is possible based upon terrestrial analogues.” because the radar detector on Mars Express proved unreliable for these kinds of measurements The team actually had to risk reprogramming the detector’s software while it was orbiting Mars There was a real chance of causing serious failures had to wait for chances to observe the south pole The satellite could only take good data when it was close to the region at night because daylight interfered with the observations This occurred less than 30 times in three years Jeffery Plaut at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California but will need to be confirmed with further study The radar images could also be explained by particular arrangements of carbon dioxide ice or very pure water ice it would be the largest known occurrence of present-day liquid water on Mars,” says Plaut “It clearly has implications for the history of climate and the possibility of habitats suitable for life.” Science DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7268 This article was published more than 5 years ago Pedra Longa juts out into the sea on Sardinia’s ruggedly gorgeous Orosei coast.Suzanne Morphet/The Globe and Mail We’ve been walking gently uphill for a couple of hours when we come to a wall of grey limestone rock soaring into a brilliant blue sky Sardinia’s ruggedly gorgeous Orosei coast fans out below us its dark-green oak and juniper forests spilling down to a turquoise shoreline where we were dropped off by boat earlier this morning the reason we’ve stopped is to climb that wall for an even better one It’s the first of many challenges we expect to face on the little-known but extraordinarily beautiful Selvaggio Blu the “Wild Blue” hiking route that hugs 60 kilometres of Sardinia’s eastern coastline others say the hardest hike in Europe,” said Mik when the six of us gathered the previous evening in the small seaside village of Santa Maria Navarrese “The biggest problem here is to find your way as the adventure includes via ferratas – climbing routes with iron rungs and cables.Suzanne Morphet/The Globe and Mail I first heard about Selvaggio Blu 10 years ago from one of Mik’s mountain-guiding colleagues in Italy’s Dolomites where I spent a week climbing a variety of via ferratas – routes with iron rungs and cables – that were originally created to help soldiers onto the mountain tops during the First World War with promises of a swim in the warm Mediterranean at the end of each day Last year the route turned 30 and I turned twice that It was time to tackle what promised to be the adventure of a lifetime The Gulf of Orosei is only a few hours south of Sardinia’s better known Costa Smeralda where European playboys come every summer to drop anchor from some of the biggest pleasure boats in the Mediterranean – and to outwit the Italian paparazzi in their wake But this coastline could be on a different island altogether The Orosei is scarred with deep ravines and hidden canyons and on hot days rosemary and thyme perfume the air The Orosei is scarred with deep ravines and hidden canyons where goats and boar roam.Suzanne Morphet/The Globe and Mail In the mid-1980s mountaineers from mainland Italy arrived attracted to the sheer limestone peaks of the Supramonte range By the end of the decade a route had been mapped Many hikers take six days to do the entire thing sleeping on secluded beaches at night and getting resupplied with food and water by boat each day Mik has devised a shorter version; four days of the most scenic terrain Climbing the limestone wall of Punta Giradili proves easier than it looks shepherds wedged juniper branches into crevices to give themselves footholds while climbing these mountains we use these same bits of weathered wood to help us along the harder work of hiking over jagged limestone karst begins The slabs of rock are so sharp that one misstep and tumble could rip our flesh apart just walking,” instructs Mik as we turn inland toward a shepherd’s farm where we’ll spend the night Climbers usually tackle Selvaggio Blu over six days.Suzanne Morphet/The Globe and Mail A lively fire is burning and a side of wild boar is turning on the spit when we arrive at the shepherd’s impressive farmstead He’s built his house in a style similar to a traditional Sardinian pinneto which has a limestone base and pointed roof made of juniper wood pane carasau – the paper-thin bread of Sardinia – and plenty of roast pork before throwing our sleeping bags on the floor and turning in The next morning the shepherd’s wife brings out bowls of hot coffee and steaming milk But soon after we set out it starts to rain Mik decides hiking isn’t just pointless – “there will be no views” – but dangerous with the area’s cliffs “We’ll have a cultural day instead,” he offers it’s easy to see how these mountains kept the Phoenicians Romans and other would-be invaders out and why this interior region “People from the rest of the island don’t understand the dialect here,” says Mik as we pass lonely farmhouses and towns that appear to hang precariously from exposed mountain faces The region has a long history of banditry (Barbagia is a derivative of “barbarians”) and Orgosolo was the centre of a spate of kidnappings as recently as the 1960s through the 1990s It was easy to keep people hidden in caves for months “They cut off the ears of a couple people for ransom from their families.” There was even a movie the town is better known for its vibrant and politically charged street murals depicting all the ills on the planet from poverty in Africa to terrorism in the Middle East the paintings seem less like a cry for justice than a sad truth about the sorry state of the world Suzanne Morphet writes that the landscape of the region of Barbagia feels dark – and not just because of the weather.Suzanne Morphet/The Globe and Mail At the nearby village of Mamoiada we tour the Mask Museum black masks that men wear every January for the Festival of Saint Antonio are on display men dress up in sheepskins and tie 30 kilograms of cowbells to their backs before parading sadly but noisily through the streets flanked by other costumed men carrying lassos This tradition is so old that no one knows when it started or even what it means This is certainly not the sunny day on the sparkling Mediterranean that I had anticipated Yet I sense that I’m seeing the real Sardinia Sardinian men are known to hold their genitals when they think someone is giving them the malocchio – the “evil eye.”) I recall something Mik said the first night it’s an island of shepherds.” He added that Sardinians had so little interest in the sea that they didn’t even name the beaches Yet most tourists visit only Sardinia’s coastline Are they missing the essence of the island I’m pondering all this over lunch at a local enoteca when my mood brightens we enjoy roasted pecorino cheese drizzled with honey on pane carasau A grilled-cheese sandwich at home never tasted so good where cannonau grapes – the Sardinian version of grenache – are grown organically and fermented naturally like their grandfather’s,” says Elisabetta Gungui-Sedilesu who married into the second generation of the wine-producing family Most tourists merely visit Sardinia's coastlines often missing the culture of 'an island of shepherds.'Suzanne Morphet/The Globe and Mail The next day the rain pummels down even harder this time to visit one of the largest caves in Europe 800-metre climb on a zigzagging road through the clouds we arrive at the entrance to the su Marmuri cave near the town of Ulassai cathedral-sized space that burrows under the mountain for almost a kilometre in length Boardwalks lead between “rooms” as in an art gallery only this one is filled with otherworldly sculptures still being refined enormous stalactites hang from the ceiling and equally impressive stalagmites rise up to meet them forming huge columns with ridged surfaces that are strangely erotic in the dim artificial light Other formations resemble the pipes of an organ Some look warm and gooey but they are cold and hard in the chill air Two shallow lakes reflect the chalky white walls and – if we were to bend down and look closely – our own wonder On what’s supposed to be our final day of hiking we drive 25 kilometres inland and arrive early at what should have been our reward for four tough days of hiking – a night at the renowned Su Gologone hotel in the Barbagian countryside Founded and owned by a local Sardinian family Su Gologone feels more like a home than a hotel from framed scenes of traditional Sardinian life to fine art by some of the island’s major artists and from hand-painted cushions to embroidered shawls to wrought-iron sculptures all crafted by island weavers and artisans is an artist in her own right and her love of colour and design is evident throughout the sprawling property.) After checking in to my “Shepherd’s Room” with its juniper wood beams and white plaster walls watch the rain fall and reflect on the past few days I could bemoan the weather and curse climate change I’ve had a chance to see a side of Sardinia that I would otherwise have missed a side that tells me more about the people and history than hiking its cliffs ever could have The writer was a guest of Dolomite Mountains The company did not review or approve the story Dolomite Mountains offers custom guided tours of Selvaggio Blu in spring and fall. A seven-day tour starts at approximately $4,000 a person (based on eight people). Trips can be shortened or lengthened and customized to client requests, including providing luxury accommodation in most places; dolomitemountains.com Su Gologone Experience Hotel is near the village of Oliena and offers a wide variety of rooms and suites, some with private terrace and hot tub. Guests can register for classes in sewing, embroidery, origami, mosaic, drawing and painting. From approximately $300 a night; sugologone.it Live your best. We have a daily Life & Arts newsletter, providing you with our latest stories on health, travel, food and culture. Sign up today Report an editorial error Report a technical issue Editorial code of conduct Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe If you would like to write a letter to the editor, please forward it to letters@globeandmail.com. Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff We aim to create a safe and valuable space for discussion and debate If you do not see your comment posted immediately it is being reviewed by the moderation team and may appear shortly We aim to have all comments reviewed in a timely manner Comments that violate our community guidelines will not be posted UPDATED: Read our community guidelines here We have closed comments on this story for legal reasons or for abuse. For more information on our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines and our Terms and Conditions The test message will simulate an earthquake-generated tsunami in the areas of Orosei An IT-alert test will be conducted in Sardinia on May 15 The test will simulate an earthquake-generated tsunami affecting the municipalities of Orosei The IT-alert system is not yet operational for all scenarios under the February 7 2023 Directive issued by the Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies Further analysis and testing were required for the risk scenarios associated with earthquake-generated tsunamis which led to the extension of the experimental phase The text of the message that the involved population will receive will read as follows: TEST TEST IT-alert message. There is an ongoing SIMULATION of an earthquake-generated tsunami in the area where you are. To learn what message you will receive in case of real danger and to fill out the survey, go to www.it-alert.gov.it/en TEST TEST  citizens will be able to access a dedicated page from the website's homepage This page will contain the text of the message that will be sent in case of a real danger Citizens in the affected areas are encouraged to fill out the survey even if they do not receive any notification The notification will reach switched-on and connected cell phones located in the target areas The test date may be subject to change if regional civil protection systems are involved in activities related to ongoing meteo-hydro alerts or emergencies An earthquake-generated tsunami is a series of sea waves generated by the rapid displacement of a large mass of water due to a strong earthquake with an epicenter at sea or near the coast The Italian national early warning system for tsunami risk is regulated by the Directive of the President of the Council of Ministers of February 17 establishing the National Alert System for Tsunami waves generated by earthquakes in the Mediterranean Sea (SiAM) as well as the Decree of the Head of the Department of Civil Protection which operates through the Tsunami Alert Centre (CAT) of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) evaluates the possibility that an earthquake could generate a tsunami assesses alert levels along exposed coastlines and delivers alert messages to the relevant authorities Based on the estimated severity of the tsunami, the System foresees two alert levels, orange and red, for the Italian coastlines. In the event of an orange or red alert, coastal zones to be evacuated are defined in the inundation maps produced by Ispra (http://sgi2.isprambiente.it/tsunamimap/) where the orange alert level is associated with alert zone 1 and the red alert level is associated with alert zone 2 The IT-alert message involves alert zone 2 and is issued in case of red and orange alert levels and in case of cancellation when the seismic event assessed as potentially generating a tsunami did not result in the event In case of real danger from an earthquake-generated tsunami cell phones in alert zone 2 will receive such an IT-alert message: Civil Protection Alert DD/MM/YY at 00:00 - Possible earthquake-generated TSUNAMI waves with epicenter in [Nation (abroad) or province of (in Italy)] STAY AWAY FROM THE SEA and move quickly to high ground Keep up to date and follow the instructions of the authorities If no tsunami is generated following an earthquake Civil Protection Alert DD/MM/YY at 00:00 - TSUNAMI ALERT CANCELLED some devices in affected areas may not receive the message even if turned on and with a phone connection This limitation of cell-broadcast technology is due to the impossibility of perfectly overlaying the area potentially affected by the emergency with the area covered by the antennas of the telephone operators used to transmit the messages Following the revelation two years ago that a pool of liquid water could be buried under the surface of Mars’ south pole a new study that has used a different technique to study the region has discovered that its not just one subglacial lake that could be hiding but a whole string of them – a find which could have important consequences for astrobiology Flying high above the Red Planet is ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft and it has been quietly observing our planetary neighbour for the past 17 years its Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARIS) instrument helped scientists reinvigorate the debate about just how wet Mars might have been in its early history and how wet it might be now when radar signals bouncing through underground layers of ice detected a particularly bright radar reflection 1.5 kilometres down that stretched for about 20 kilometres principal investigator of the MARSIS experiment said that the subsurface anomaly had radar properties matching water or water-rich sediments Little else was surmised other than that it appeared to be a stable body of liquid water and one that was possibly rich in salty brines “This is just one small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere yet to be discovered,” Orosei said back in 2018 along with a team headed by Sebastian Emanuel Lauro at the Università degli studi Roma Tre have done just that by discovering several subglacial liquid bodies of various sizes strewn under Mars’ South polar region using a technique similar to that employed by Earth satellites to detect Antarctic subglacial lakes (different to the one Orosei used previously) Lauro and colleagues scanned a much broader region – 250 × 300 km2 – around the Martian liquid body to collect more information the authors were able to confirm the liquid nature of the previously observed lake while also identifying several other smaller patches of water separated from the main body by strips of dry material “Our results strengthen the claim of the detection of a liquid water body at Ultimi Scopuli and indicate the presence of other wet areas nearby,” say the team in their research paper published today in Nature Astronomy Mars’ past climate is heavily debated and while some advocate it once had a warm and wet climate, others suggest that its mix of geological features are better explained if the planet underwent periods where ice dominated the landscape Whether the water came from melting glaciers or from flowing rivers created by downpouring rain the team further suggest that the underground patches remain wet due to their high concentration of salts These hypersaline brines are known to form at Martian polar regions and are thought to survive for an extended period of time after formation without it re-crystallising say Lauro and colleagues and could explain why such bodies can remain liquid despite the cold environment at the base of Mars’s south pole The team also looked at whether recent magmatic activity could be responsible for keeping the ponds liquid but ruled this out in favour of the salt water theory as a geothermal explanation did not fit with other key evidence obtained from planetary observations so far The prospect of a string of underground salty lakes is tantalising several forms of algae and even brine shrimp and brine flies can tolerate these conditions on Earth; although martian microbes would have significant cooler temperatures to contend with than the variety that live in salt lakes on our planet “The water bodies at the base of the SPLD [south polar layered deposits] therefore represent areas of potential astrobiological interest and planetary protection concern," write the team in their paper "Future missions to Mars should target this region to acquire experimental data in relation to the basal hydrologic system its chemistry and traces of astrobiological activity.” First edition of Italian race delivers World Championships qualifier over Sardinian back country and beaches Frederik Rassmann and Debora Piana charged away from their rivals to win the Giro Sardegna Gravel race the fifth stage of a six day tour on the Mediterranean Island The UCI Gravel World Series event took place on the fifth stage of the Giro Sardegna with a course that started in Orosei at the ITI Marina Resort for a 13 km journey towards a local loop of 41km Rassmann won the men's category by crossing the line six seconds ahead of Alban Lakata and more than a minute-and-a-half ahead of Matteo Zurlo Piana took out the women's race in emphatic style The elite men and women were both scheduled to take on the local lap three times however organisers dropped the number of laps for the women to two citing safety reasons given the forecast strong winds Results powered by FirstCycling She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor Previously she worked as a freelance writer Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport also known as the Aguglia or Punta Caroddi is one of Italy’s most well-known limestone needles The aesthetic spire draws countless climbers to Sardinia every year It rises 143 metres above the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Orosei inside the Supramonte di Baunei and overlooks the white beach of Cala Goloritzè in the Mediterranean Sea A post shared by Sherri Castiglione (@canmoregirls) on Nov 19 The easiest climb on the Aguglia is Easy Gymnopedie a five-pitch 140-metre line that is fully bolted at 5.10 It was first climbed in 1981 by Alessandro Gogna and Maurizio Zanolla “Manolo” on a windy day They named it Sinfonia dei Mulini a Vento (Symphony of Windmills) There are a number of ways to get there: by boat walking the long Il Selvaggio Blu trail or by walking downhill for an hour from il Golgo A post shared by John Price (@johnpricephotography) on Nov 19 The last trail goes past limestone crags and big oak trees The hike out takes much longer because the hill is steep and never lets up You can climb year-round as the Mediterranean climate is often sunny with mild temperatures and little rainfall Watch this short film of unknown climbers heading up Aguglia di Goloritzè Get the digital edition of Gripped for your chosen platform: Katherine Hignett is a reporter based in London she edited a medicine industry newspaper and its accompanying websites Katherine graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Oxford in 2015. She also has an undergraduate degree from the University of York. You can contact her at k.hignett@newsweek.com either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Researchers have detected a 12.5 mile-wide body of liquid water below the surface of Mars using a radar zipping around the red planet Buried a mile beneath Mars's southern polar ice caps, the team think they've found a salty lake that might be able to harbor life, a discovery hailed as a "major milestone" for our understanding of the planet. Their research was published in the journal Science Roberto Orosei from Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics and his team probed radar data from an instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft it's been exploring the red planet for almost 15 years The craft's "Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding" (MARSIS) came across strange echoes that most likely indicate a large body of water about a mile below the planet's southern polar ice cap Orosei said in a video explaining the discovery These weird echoes were stronger than those from the surface this only happens when radars probe subglacial bodies of water like Lake Vostok in Antarctica that any other explanation for these very strong echoes was not really tenable in light of [our] evidence," Orosei said The team thinks the lake is at least 3 feet deep but can't say for sure because the radar signal is absorbed by liquid very quickly Because the ice above the lake is incredibly clear, scientists think the water must be very cold. Liquid touching the ice, Orosei said, is probably between -14 and -22 degrees Fahrenheit. Although this is well below freezing, high concentrations of salt can keep water liquid at incredibly low temperatures, he explained. It's why trucks sprinkle salt on icy roads in winter "The underground water might exist as a lake trapped beneath rock layers or mixed in with Martian soil to create a salty sludge," Swinburne University astronomer Alan Duffy told the Australian Science Media Centre (ASMC) "Either way at [12.5 miles] across there is a lot of it." this is a major milestone in the understanding of the current subsurface conditions," Nicolas Mangold a planetary geologist at the University of Nantes But he warned the radar data doesn't necessarily prove the lake exists It's worth considering what other options might explain the results "I doubt that the whole community will be convinced at first look," Mangold said "There are good reasons for caution," Michael Brown an astronomer and professor at Monash University in Melbourne "This result relies on the interpretation of radar images... I'm sure the scientific community will debate alternative explanations." they open up the possibility that other pockets of water exist on Mars MARSIS—which can penetrate ice this deeply but not rock—might miss these underground pools of liquid If humans one day probe this particular subglacial lake in person it's unlikely they'll actually use its water to survive Astronauts could [melt] the water ice at the surface...much more easily." But—if we're very lucky—this salty sludgy lake might just be home to some very basic alien life Scientists believe single-cell organisms can survive in the subglacial lakes of Antarctica But given the depth of this particular pool it will be a long time before rovers and other technology can explore the site directly scientists will carry on using Earth as a stand-in for the red planet "Mars has many striking similarities with our own planet Its axial tilt and day length produce a climate that is a chilly analog of Earth's with polar caps that mimic those of our own world's," the Australian Astronomical Observatory's Fred Watson told the ASMC Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Marsis: New discovery of a complex system of hypersaline water ponds under the Martian South polar cap Two years after the discovery of a lake beneath the Martian south polar cap published in 2018 in the prestigious scientific journal Science by an Italian group led by Roberto Orosei (National Institute for Astrophysics: INAF Italy) and Enrico Flamini (ASI: Italian Space Agency) a team of scientists from University Roma Tre University of Southern Queensland (Centre for Astrophysics: Toowoomba has found evidence pointing to the existence of multiple ponds of hypersaline water trapped beneath the ice at Mars’s south polar region In the paper published in 2018 the team had announced that the radar sounder MARSIS one of the scientific instruments on board the ESA spacecraft Mars Express had detected an area of strong reflectivity approximately 1.5 km beneath the South Polar Layered Deposits a thick polar cap formed by layers of ice and dust the high intensity of the radar signal reflected from an area about 20 km in extent could have been explained by the presence of a water lake with water prevented from freezing owing to its high concentration of salts both from the original team and other international research groups to confirm the initial finding and to further understand the conditions that would allow liquid water to persist under the Martian ice cap A new study, just published in the journal Nature Astronomy by a multidisciplinary 13-member team comprising physicists explains how newly acquired radar data revealed unexpected results extent and strength of the reflector from our 2018 study” Elena Pettinelli who co-led the team with Sebastian Lauro (also at Roma Tre University) “We borrowed a methodology commonly used in radar sounder investigations of subglacial lakes in Antarctica and we adapted the method to analyze old and new MARSIS data The interpretation that best reconciles all the available evidence is that the high intensity reflections are coming from extended pools of liquid water” “The main lake is surrounded by smaller bodies of liquid water but because of the technical characteristics of the radar and of its distance from the Martian surface we cannot conclusively determine whether they are interconnected” “Any process of formation and persistence of sub-ice water beneath the ice polar caps requires the liquid to have high salinity” coauthor Graziella Caprarelli Adjunct Research Fellow with the Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland “Laboratory experiments aimed at studying the stability of hypersaline aqueous solutions (brines) convincingly demonstrate that these can persist for geologically significant periods of time even at the temperatures typical of the Martian polar regions considerably below the freezing temperature of pure water” the current President of the International Research School of Planetary Sciences (IRSPS) at the University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) formerly Science Mission Programs Manager with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) commented the discovery thus: “To state that these new results make me happy is not enough The biggest unanswered question from our earlier paper was: is this the only evidence of sub-ice liquid water At the time we did not have enough evidence to address this question but this new research demonstrates that the 2018 discovery was only the first piece of evidence of a widespread system of liquid water bodies in the Martian subsurface It is exactly what I would have hoped: a great result Principal Investigator of the MARSIS experiment comments: "While the existence of a single subglacial lake could be attributed to exceptional conditions such as the presence of a volcano under the ice sheet the discovery of an entire system of lakes implies that their formation process is relatively simple and common and that these lakes have probably existed for much of Mars' history they could still retain traces of any life forms that could have evolved when Mars had a dense atmosphere a milder climate and the presence of liquid water on the surface ASI’s coordinator for the MARSIS radar sounder this latest discovery justifies ASI’s efforts in this strategic sector of research on Mars and further demonstrates how Italy has what it takes to consolidate its leadership in the development and data analysis of this type of radar With the study published in Nature Astronomy the team confirms that thick ice sheets far from being uniformly structured wastelands should be viewed as stratigraphically and physically complex geological formations At the conclusion of their report the team suggests that because brines have been shown to have potential to sustain microbial life in extreme conditions renewed efforts should be made to explore the polar regions of Mars with the specific purpose of finding reservoirs of subglacial water and of determining their composition and astrobiological potential The protocol is intended to promote national excellence in technologies applied to the space and aerospace industries MORE... ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, launched the 14th April 2023, will make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of the state-of-the-art instruments MORE... The event was hosted in Manama, the capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain, on July 2nd MORE... Mars has at least one huge subglacial lake of liquid water hiding underneath its surface, new findings from a team of Italian researchers confirm It’s over 12 miles wide and is the first of its kind to be discovered on Mars which had previously been thought to only contain ice The discovery means we could be one step closer to finding evidence of extraterrestrial life on the red planet The discovery was made using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) a high powered radar tool attached to and developed specifically for the Mars Express spacecraft which has been orbiting Mars since 2003 as part of the European Space Agency’s mission to map Mars which penetrate the icy Martian terrain before reflecting back onto the spacecraft MARSIS then measures these reflected waves to figure out what it’s looking at The European Space Agency first deployed the technology involved 13 years ago scouring the Martian terrain proved invaluable for Professor Roberto Orosei of Italy’s National Institute of Astrophysics and his team used MARSIS to measure a section of Mars’ canyon-filled southern ice cap called Planum Australe which had been returning abnormal radar readings for a section of land in that area Further investigation revealed a roughly 12 mile wide area located around one mile below the planet’s icy surface which produced a radio profile similar to that of one of Earth’s subglacial lakes there is no reason to conclude that the presence of subsurface water on Mars is limited to a single location.” This article was published more than 6 years ago The region of Mars near the south polar cap called Planum Australe is made up of layers of glacial ice underneath a veneer of reddish dust The coloured bars indicate an area where scientists working the Europe’s Mars Express spacecraft have probed the subsurface with radar and spotted a body of liquid water under the ice (dark blue patch) that hopeful thought has propelled mission after mission to Mars to follow the dry analyze the chemistry of minerals deposited in long vanished pools and dig into the permafrost at the planet’s frigid northern plains a team of European scientists is claiming evidence of a 20-kilometre-wide reservoir of water on Mars in the form of a saline lake – or possibly a giant mud puddle – buried deep under a glacier near the planet’s south pole the discovery promises to re-invigorate efforts to detect life on Mars and may ultimately reorient that quest toward the planet’s southern extremes “There are bacterial species on Earth that can survive in a similar environment so it’s tempting to conclude that this could be considered a habitat,” said Roberto Orosei a researcher with Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics in Bologna who announced the finding at a news conference in Rome on Wednesday beneath a 1.5-kilometre-thick layer cake of dust and ice suggests that it might be as cold as -68 degrees C and kept liquid only by a highly concentrated blend of mineral salts Dr. Orosei compared the find to that of two small lakes reported under a glacier on Canada’s Devon Island in the Arctic earlier this year A key follow-up question for astrobiologists is whether the newfound reservoir is merely the first hint of a network of aquifers that could have offered hypothetical Martian microbes a harsh but stable environment over geologic time spans “We need to know if it’s a unique occurrence or part of a larger system,” Dr Orosei said the water must be in a liquid state to explain the signal he and his colleagues spotted in data gathered by Mars Express a probe that was built and launched by the European Space Agency and that has been orbiting the planet since December The probe includes a radar-mapping instrument that blasts Mars with pulses of radio energy and then uses the reflected signal to reveal the planet’s structure and composition up to five kilometres below the visible surface This photo released by the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 25 shows Radar data collected by ESAs Mars Express pointing to a pond of liquid water buried under layers of ice and dust in the south polar region of Mars AFP PHOTO / Context map: NASA/Viking; THEMIS background: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University; MARSIS data: ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ A key motivation for the instrument was the search for groundwater on Mars long championed by its principal investigator Despite fleeting hints that there might be something unusual near the south pole the instrument found no conclusive evidence of water after several years Picardi decided that too much information was being dumped in order to transmit the instrument’s data back to Earth through the spacecraft’s highly limited bandwidth he devised a workaround by using a spare computer chip on the spacecraft that could temporarily store a more complete set of data and feed it back to Earth in dribs and drabs but it took three years to gather just 30 observations of the suspected area of interest which could only be achieved when the spacecraft was passing directly overhead while at the shallowest point in its orbit and when the south polar region was not illuminated by the sun the team then faced numerous technical setbacks and false starts “We simply could not accept that it was over,” said Dr describing the team’s long effort to continue the project since then show that the spacecraft detected a strong radar reflection at a location about 81 degrees south latitude in a region known as Planum Australe which they attribute to a sudden transition from solid ice to liquid water While the reflection cannot reveal the depth of the water or water-soaked sediment Orosei said that the liquid layer must be at least 80 centimetres deep or there would not have been such a strong signal an expert on Martian ice who is based at the Planetary Science Institute in Lakewood said that the European team’s data are “consistent with some kind of mud or brine or liquid water phase.” Smith works with a radar instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that instrument employs a wavelength which cannot easily penetrate to the bottom of the ice deposits at the Martian south pole the only sure way to confirm the European team’s findings may be with a drill – a long-term undertaking that would require translating techniques developed on Earth to a Martian environment Such an attempt would also raise serious questions about how to best explore a watery environment on Mars without risking contamination by Earth bacteria carried on drills and other instruments The search for water on Mars dates back to 1974 after the Mariner 9 spacecraft sent back visual evidence of vast fluid flows that shaped the planet’s surface billions of years ago Excitement was further spurred by the 2011 discovery of thin veins of darkened soil found spilling down cliff sides and crater walls in many locations around the planet Scientists have since debated whether the features are caused by water that may occasionally be reaching the surface even today a planetary scientist at Western University in London is currently working on a concept study for the Canadian Space Agency for a radar system that could find water much closer to the surface than that discovered by the European team While the Canadian radar would mainly be looking for locations where ice could be accessed by future Mars explorers for life support and fuel Osinski said the plan is also to target locations where it’s suspected that liquid water could be seeping out from greater depths “This hopefully opens the door to new discoveries.” 7 Jul 2018I’M sitting in the back of a jeep admiring the mountain views when suddenly the driver darts off the main road powering up a muddy track that seems too narrow and steep for any vehicle The jeep winds higher through the woodland wheels churning on the edge of a sheer drop into the valley below this is still the most relaxing holiday I have ever been on Sardinia has become a hot new package holiday destination because of its near-untouched beauty and peaceful vibe The new 4* Sentido Orosei Beach hotel has been designed to complement the island’s chilled-out feel Bright red flowers creep up the walls of its modest two floors, giving the place both charm and a sense of exclusivity. The tranquil pool area, with its own bar, bold and beautiful gardens and tennis courts make it seem like you’re stepping into a backyard that’s all yours. My comfortable double room featured a balcony overlooking the hotel’s immaculately kept lawn, where the morning daybreak class, a blend of yoga, pilates and tai chi, is held. A short walk takes you to the glorious beach where guests have a private area offering unblemished views of the horizon. Guests also have access to a second, bigger but louder pool in a sister hotel, which is more suitable for little ones. There are also clubs there for kids aged three to 17. The hotel offers the Discovery Walk, a hike of the surrounding area, while Thomas Cook’s wealth of excursions take you farther afield. First up was a day trip to La Maddalena, a seaside town on an island of the same name between Sardinia and Corsica. With its narrow back streets and pastel buildings, it’s a quaint and calming place. But the main draw is a boat trip around the archipelago, boasting 61 other breathtaking “secret” islands, most of which are deserted. With just 69 people per square kilometre in Sardinia, compared to 5,500 in London, it often feels like you are the first to discover something new and beautiful. On an exhilarating jeep tour I took in the astonishing views of the Lanaittu valley, losing count of how many times I said “wow”. The guided tour also took me underground to the Grotta di Sa Oche, one of Sardinia’s 1,500 caves, and the archaeological site of Sa Sedda e Sos Carros, where the ruins of a village dating back to the Bronze and Iron Ages still stand. I was treated to a lavish meal of sausages, bacon and crackling before trying local mirto, a liqueur made from myrtle berries that tastes of rosemary and juniper and is on the hotel’s all-inclusive menu, and grappa, nicknamed “iron wire” which will challenge even the most seasoned shot-taker. Given it’s an Italian island, my expectations of the food were high and I was relieved by the commitment to quality at Sentido Orosei Beach. The buffet featured a mix of regional specialities and classic dishes, with the pasta and seafood from Sardinian waters often the star attractions. The squid-ink risotto, jet-black and creamy, was a personal highlight. Local catches are showcased at the hotel’s a la carte restaurant, where a four-course seafood set menu is offered alongside a meat option. Diners can retire to the Blue bar, where there is a nightly performer. All-inclusive guests can dine in the a la carte restaurant one night of their stay about 25 minutes’ walk away or a quick ride on a shuttle bus has some fantastic places to eat if you fancy a change of scenery Hillside restaurant Belohorizonte offers more of a fine dining experience with authentic Sardinian dishes and a fantastic view when eating al fresco The chocolate and lemon ricotta ravioli dessert is the ultimate indulgence but after the walk you can’t come to Italy without having pizza Ristorante Villa Fumosa nearby has speciality pizzas up to a metre long perfect for big parties or a foodie who loves a challenge the gobsmacking surroundings and tranquil vibe Seven nights’ all inclusive at the 4H Sentido Orosei Beach is from £705pp, based on two adults sharing, including flights from Manchester on September 23 and airport transfers (call 0844 412 5970 or see thomascook.com) Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/