Bleugh, alarm clock at 4am! On the plus side we get all the travelling out of the way and are in Sardinia around 1pm. Really hot, 36c on arrival. First Italian experience, off the plane and into the airport, up an escalator to the passport control to find one guy in a booth, a mass queue and no where left to get off the escalator... Oh and still people on the way up behind us! Spotted the emergency stop button and the guy behind managed to bend down (yes it was on the floor!) to turn off the flow of people.

Next to collect the hire car... more typical Italian - boiling hot room, tiny booths for each hire company and a mass rush to get to the front to be served... We made our way to stake a claim in the 'queue' and then I left Allan to maintain forward motion while I got us some water. Arrived back to find he'd been collaborating with a local to control other tourists and educate them in the ways of polite queueing etiquette... i.e. telling them off for jumping ahead and getting them to wait their turn!!

Car keys successfully collected, off to the car... What a car!!! Fiat 500, tiny, seriously tiny car... Now to find the hotel, round and round Olbia trying to find the right road without success, we gave up and went the long way round via Arzachena... Got to experience the full delights of the car very quickly, no oomph, we added our feet and flintstone style ran up the hills! Literally had to go in 1st gear for some slopes!

Arrived at the hotel around 4pm, properly in the middle of nowhere, quiet, gorgeous lake, peaceful and relaxed - perfect... Popped into the local town Sant'Antonio di Gallura for a shared panini and a wander to stretch our legs then back to the hotel. Looked through the hotel folder guidebook to the area to work out some of the trips we'd like to do then for a quick first bit of pool time. First night pizza dinner in the hotel...