Sardinia

**Sardinia** (, Sardinian: _Sardigna_) is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. It was formerly the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The official name is, in Italian, ***Regione Autonoma della Sardegna***.The capital and largest city is Cagliari.

## Geography

The island of Sardinia has an area of  and, after Sicily, is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is  long from North to South, and  wide from West to East. It lies between 38° 51' and 41° 15' latitude north and 8° 8' and 9° 50' longitude east.

The island is on the western Mediterranean Sea, between the island of Corsica to the north and Tunisia to the south. The Tyrrhenian Sea part of the Mediterranean is directly east of Sardinia, between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula.

The Strait of Bonifacio (, , Gallurese: _Bocchi di Bunifaciu_, ) is the strait between Corsica and Sardinia, named after the Corsican town Bonifacio. It is   wide  and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea from the western Mediterranean Sea.

### Rivers

Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso,  long, which flows into the western Mediterranean Sea, the Coghinas () and the Flumendosa ().

### Mountains and valleys

The highest peak is Punta La Marmora (), part of the Gennargentu group of mountains in the centre of the island. Other mountain chains are Monte Limbara () in the northeast, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano () running crosswise for  towards the north, the Monte Albo (), the Sette Fratelli massif in the southeast, and the Sulcis Mountains and the Monte Linas ().

The mountain chains of the island are separated by wide valleys; the main ones are Campidano in the southwest between Oristano and Cagliari, and the Nurra in the northwest.

### Islands

There are many small islands around the main island of Sardinia. Some of them are:
- Maddalena Archipelago, to the northeast
- Asinara, to the northwest
- San Pietro Island, to the southwest
- Sant'Antioco, to the southwest

## Administrative divisions

Sardinia is divided in eight provinces:

|Province|Capital|Area (km²)|Population <small>(2012)</small>|Density <small>(inh./km²)</small>|Communes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Cagliari|Cagliari|4,570|551,077||71|
|Carbonia-Iglesias|Carbonia and Iglesias|1,495|127,958||23|
|Medio Campidano|Sanluri and Villacidro|1,516|100,624||28|
|Nuoro|Nuoro|3,934|158,314||52|
|Ogliastra|Lanusei and Tortoli|1,854|57,321||23|
|Olbia-Tempio|Olbia and Tempio Pausania|3,399|152,455||26|
|Oristano|Oristano|3,040|163,079||88|
|Sassari|Sassari|4,282|329,551||66|

## Other websites

- Official Sardinia Tourism website in English
- Official regional website in Italian
- Sardegna DigitalLibrary - La memoria digitale della Sardegna

## Infobox (region of italy)

- **name**: Sardinia
- **italian name**: Sardegna
- **region coa**: Sardegna-Stemma.svg
- **coa size**: 70px
- **map**: Sardinia in Italy.svg
- **flag**: Flag of Sardinia, Italy (1950–1999).svg
- **capital**: Cagliari
- **area**: 24090
- **population**: 1648837
- **pop date**: 30 November 2012
- **provinces**: 8
- **gdp**: 33,638
- **gdp year**: 2011
- **gdp per capita**: 20,071
- **gdp cap year**: 2011
- **website**: [http://www.regione.sardegna.it/ www.regione.sardegna.it]
- **leader**: Francesco Pigliaru
- **leader party**: Democratic Party (Italy), PD
- **nuts**: ITG (Insular Italy)
- **iso region**: IT-88
- **latd**: 40.00
- **longd**: 09.00
- **off lang**: Sardinian