The best traffic-free bike rides around U Pàize/Carloforte

Carloforte, still closely linked to Pegli and Genoa, is the island's only center, with 6,000 inhabitants. It enchants with its many narrow streets rising up a gentle slope, its colorful corners and sea views, its small harbor, and its former defenses, of which watchtowers and sections of walls with forts can still be seen, including La Porta del Leone. Among the architectural highlights of this town, which is included in the Club of the Most Beautiful Towns in Italy, are U Palassiu, dating from the early 20th century and now the Giuseppe Cavallera Cinema, and the Church of the Madonna del Naufrago, which houses the wooden statue venerated by the Tabarkin people, a symbol of the faith and solidarity of the community.

The Carloforte Tonnara is one of the last active tuna fisheries in the Mediterranean, testifying to a fishing tradition rooted in the island's history. Every spring, the "mattanza" (tuna slaughter) takes place, the traditional method of catching tuna, passed down for centuries and still practiced today using historic techniques. The tonnara, with its buildings overlooking the sea and ancient work tools, tells an important chapter in the island's economic and cultural history.

Admission is free and is permitted in the evening. During the day it will be closed, and you will have to be content with peeking under the door!

Beautiful panoramic point overlooking the beach of Acqua sa Canna

At every bend a breathtaking view. The road is wide, well-kept and not very busy (at least outside the summer peak period) and it is very pleasant to cycle on.

The language of the Tabarchians essentially corresponds to the Ligurian language of the 15th century. Through personal and trade connections - both from Tunisia and from the island of San Pietro - it has developed just as much as the actual Ligurian and Genoese languages. Due to its geographical location, the port of Carloforte was of considerable importance in shipping and as a transshipment point for medium tonnage until the beginning of the 19th century. Carlofortine Ligurian preserves some nouns and rare grammatical forms that only occur in the outdated Genoese. It does not contain any Gallicisms that Genoese has adopted in recent centuries; for example, the accent (còccina) is typical of Pegli and not of pure Genoese. Only a few nouns from Sardinian, Arabic and Tuscan can be identified as external influences. More than 80 percent of the population still speak this dialect in everyday life today. The architecture, culture, customs and traditions of Carloforte still correspond to those of Liguria. Due to its historical, economic and cultural ties with the Ligurian capital, especially with Pegli, Carloforte was recognized as an honorary municipality of the province of Genoa on November 10, 2004. In 2006, the neighboring municipality of Calasetta received the same honor. Carloforte celebrates twin festivities with Pegli every year.

In 1542, the inhabitants of Pegli and the neighbouring communities left their home on the Ligurian coast in the wake of the Lomellini, a powerful trading family from Pegli and Genoa, and settled on the island of Tabarca off the coast of Tunisia, where they dived for coral until 1735. When coral mining and thus the tribute to the Lomellini continued to decline and was no longer profitable for all sides, and the conflicts with the Muslims intensified, King Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, on the initiative of the Piedmontese architect Augusto de la Vallée, made the offer to settle the still uninhabited island of San Pietro. A part of the Tabarchini under the leadership of Agostino Tagliafico accepted the offer and settled on the island off Sardinia in 1738. In honour of the king, they named the new place Carloforte ("Charles the Strong"). Over time, other emigrant families arrived directly from Liguria and helped to strengthen the small, thriving community. In 1798, Carloforte was attacked by pirates and around 900 inhabitants were captured and held as slaves in Tunis; one of them became the mother of Bey Ahmad I al-Husain. After five years, they were finally ransomed. The parts of the old city walls and the fortress that still remain today are evidence of this barbarian invasion. The population, also known as the Tabarchines because of their origins, united the towns of Carloforte on the island of San Pietro and the neighboring community of Calasetta on the nearby island of Sant'Antioco. A smaller part of the emigrants from Tabarca headed towards the Spanish coast to Alicante and founded the town of Nueva Tabarca there. Although this colony retained some of the original surnames, it was absorbed by the Spanish-speaking community in terms of language and customs. The Tabarchini are scattered all over the world, mainly in Genoa, on the Ligurian coast, in Gibraltar, in Boca near Buenos Aires and in other port cities. They are estimated to number 18,000 people in total.

Carloforte (Ligurian: U Pàize) is an Italian municipality in the province of Sulcis Iglesiente in the Autonomous Region of Sardinia. It essentially comprises the island of San Pietro about 10 km off the southwest coast of Sardinia and some other insignificant islets of the Sulcis archipelago. The small town with 5983 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2022) is the only settlement on the island of San Pietro.