Living between Olbia and the islands

Olbia is not a resort, which is precisely why Costa Nord is based there. International flights land. Notaries work. The harbour is for boats that have somewhere to go. From the city, the gulf is a geography rather than a brand: Porto Rotondo, Pittulongu, Golfo Aranci, and then the limestone mountain of Tavolara sitting in the water as if it had been placed.

A house on this side of the northeast is judged by a different set of facts. How far to the airport on a Tuesday. Whether the beach is a walk. Whether the view to the island is owned or merely adjacent. Whether the settlement is inhabited in January.

Tavolara is the landmark of the whole coast. Privacy here is often just a matter of which way the terrace faces.

A more considered calendar

The gulf does not empty when the yachts leave Porto Cervo. That changes the kind of buyer who stays, and the kind of house that makes sense. We spend as much time on winter light and wind as on the August photograph. The photograph still matters. It should not be the whole brief.