Mareka with her son Blake on holiday in Sardinia
Image courtesy of Mareka Sampson
Bristol-based Mareka Sampson (pictured with her son Blake) owns a three-bedroom country house two miles from the sea halfway between Alghero and Bosa in Sardinia’s northwest. She spends a month there in the summer and makes shorter visits at Easter and in the autumn.
What drew her to Italy, and to Sardinia in particular? “I was a big fan of Caribbean islands,” Mareka explains, “and I used to make stupidly long and expensive journeys every year to go on holiday on the other side of the world. Then a friend asked if I’d ever been to Sardinia and talked me into going there with her one year. I had never even been to Italy, I’m ashamed to say! Anyway, you can imagine the rest. I fell completely in love with the place. The sea and landscapes seemed every bit as beautiful as the Caribbean, but the buildings were prettier and the food even more delicious. It took a fraction of the time to get there and cost far less. It was a no-brainer, as they say, so I bought a house.