Every design for Casteddu/Cagliari

Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia and has been the island's seat of power for a very long time: as Caralis it governed the Roman province of Sardinia et Corsica, and later it was capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia until Turin took over. Under its streets lie some five thousand years of settlement, from a Carthaginian necropolis to the Anfiteatro Romano and three towers from the Pisan era. The University of Cagliari dates from 1606, and the city is admired for its Art Nouveau buildings.

It sits at the centre of a wide gulf on Sardinia's south coast, built around the fortified hill of Castello — Casteddu in Sardinian, which also became the city's own name. Lagoons and salt pans hem it in on both sides, while to the north the Campidano plain once sent its wheat down to one of the biggest harbours in the Mediterranean.

Growing up here means knowing the climb to the Bastione di Saint Remy, the Torre dell'Elefante, and the wind coming off the lagoons on a summer evening.