Porto Rafael: the Other Coast

Undisputed destination for the most demanding holidaymakers - thanks to the natural wonders that prompted Prince Aga Khan IV to elect it as a retreat for the international jet set at the beginning of the 60s - even this part of Sardinia today pays the price of its fame with a currency that has devalued, becoming almost voyeuristic, with a screamed exclusivity within everyone's reach. Groups of tourists lined up in front of the famous people boats, for a selfie with celebrities of the moment, describe such a lac of style.

Even Porto Rafael was born in the early 60s, by inspiration of a Spanish nobleman, Count Rafael Neville. He knew Aga Khan - they usually met in social events -, he knew his ambitions, and he certainly cannot compete with his financial resources. While Aga Khan lays foundations of a gigantic real estate dream, involving a staff of international architects with whom founding Porto Cervo and building a large harbor with luxurious hotels and social hangouts, Rafael arranges his cozy settlement as if it is the wing of a family building, guaranteing comforts and discretion to his guests, a stylistic footprint still inimitable. What initially appeared only a modest response to the grandiose visions of his princely antagonist, in just over 60 years is proving to be the only sustainable and most selective touristic intuition of the area, surviving to time and its inevitable fall. In the suggestive Marina of Porto Rafael you will never see people in line, if not guests of a party on board, ready to sail to some hidden cove or to Corsica, where stop for the night. If you wake up early in the morning you can have breakfast at Ottavio’s with some men of the crews moored in the Marina, and you will find some excellent freshly baked croissants. You will always be protected by anonymity, respecting your freedom and privacy.

When reading newspapers, you won't find any mention of Porto Rafael, not even indiscretions on you. At most, at a dinner party, someone may say having seen your property on an exclusive interiors design magazine: it will probably be the only gossip involving you during summer, and people will forget it already before dessert. If by chance you forgot to put something in your suitcase before leaving, you have enchanting shops around, where you may find sea clothing or elegant objects for your home. On Friday, at Palau's market, you’ll go back in time and relive your youthly vacations, haggling on the price of beach shirts or cashmere occasions well hidden.

Fill up on fruit and vegetables, cheese, honey and typical sweets, then have a coffee break in the slightly sleepy rhythm of a seaside town, that runs towards future without believing in it too much. After a day spent under the sun in one of its beautiful beaches, at sunset Porto Rafael offers you an appetizer in the Piazzetta with friends or a candlelit dinner pieds dans l'eau, and the crowd around you will be a starry night with a magnificent moon. On the way back home you will not find cars parked in double rows with arrows lit in front of a disco, it's easier that a turtle or a porcupine cut your road.
The owner of the food store will call you by name during all summer, as if you were a relative, and she will ask you to take a picture before you leave because she's keen on you even if she doesn't know who you are. And if you are nobody, Rafael will still invite you to party with him all night long. He'll let you go to bed only by promising him you will pursue your dream too, before you realize you are talking to yourself, while a small fox follows you from afar.