Sardegna is the second largest island (23,813 sq. km.) in the Mediterranean and as a result of its isolation, less dependent on insularity than on the distance separating it from mainland Italy, it has conserved its own economy and traditions far more tha
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Lying in the Tyrrhenian Sea to the east, the Sardinian to the west and separated from Corsica to the north by the Strait of Bonifacio, and including the smaller islands round it (Sant Antioco, San Pietro, Asinara, La Maddalena, Caprera, etc.), Sardegna is the most extensive region after Sicily and Piedmont.
The climate is Mediterranean with long hot dry breezy summers and short mild rainy winters, except at high altitudes. Average annual temperatures range from 18 ºC along the coastal belt to 14 ºC inland.
Precipitations are largely confined to the winter months and distribution is somewhat irregular, with as much as 1,300 mm./year in the highest areas. The prevailing wind is north-westerly, which blows over the island in all seasons, particularly sweeping the west side.
A characteristic element of Sardinian wildlife is the presence of the monk seal and the mouflon or wild goat which, together with the Sardinian sparrow, are found only in this region. Vipers, badgers, wolves and bears are absent altogether, and certain other animals, such as deer and foxes, have developed individual characteristics so divergent from those of the species that they are to be regarded as purely Sardinian.
In centraleast Sardinia, Gennargentu with its great forests and wild rugged morphology is an interesting environment that is almost unique in the Mediterranean, with vegetation that varies in accordance with the distance from the sea and the nature of the ground.
A wild impenetrable mountainous zone, practically uninhabited, is Monte Arcosu, a great unbroken wilderness stretching over 50,000 hectares of Iglesiente and culminating in Monte is Caravius, between Santadi and Capoterra.
This zone is famous for one of the last surviving herds of Sardinian fallow deer, found nowhere else in the world, and its wildlife includes wild boar, hares, foxes and the Sardinian wildcat, as well as rare birds, such as Bonelli's eagle, the golden eagle and the Sardinian partridge.
