Welcome to the mini-Sahara of Sardinia. The dunes cover some 5km² and are around 60m high, lining an emerald sea and pushing inland as far as the wooded hinterland, where only hardy scrubland, dotted with olive trees bent by the mistral's winds, stops its advance. This protected natural landscape is the theatre of the Riserva naturale del Monte Arcuentu e Rio Piscinas, which can only be explored on foot or horseback. To reach Piscinas, the queen of the Costa Verde's beaches, you will have to cross the ford Rio Piscinas and follow an easy 5km-path.