Pastel-stacked hillside town on Sardinia's Temo River — and the island's best Malvasia wine
Bosa is the most beautiful small town in Sardinia: a cascade of pastel-painted medieval houses climbing a hill above the only navigable river in Sardinia (the Temo), its crown a 12th-century Malaspina castle, its waterfront a procession of tanners' houses that once dyed Sardinian leather red. The town is remote — 100km north of Cagliari and off every main road — which has kept it quiet and genuinely Sard in character rather than tourist-oriented. The surrounding area produces Malvasia di Bosa, a rare amber-coloured dessert wine (one of Italy's most obscure DOC wines) from Malvasia di Sardegna…
Bosa was founded by Phoenicians who recognized the Temo River as the only safe harbour on the western Sardinian coast — the site was continuously inhabited through the Carthaginian, Roman, and Byzantine periods. The current hilltop castle was built in 1112 by the Genoese Malaspina family during the period when Sardinia was divided between feudal dynasties. The town's tanneries, clustered along the Sa Costa waterfront, operated continuously from the medieval period until the mid-20th century — the multi-storey houses were built tall to allow animal hides to be worked on successive floors. Bosa…