From Lonely Planet’s Italy travel guide Feb 2012, Lonely Planet’s #1 selling European country guide! Sardinia chapter: DON’T MISS “THE LEMON HOUSE
A terrific base for outdoor escapades is the Lemon House (0782 669507; www.peteranne.it; Via Dante 10, Lotzorai; per person €30-42), run by Peter and Anne. Peter has bolted some of the 800 climbing routes in the area and is a co-founder of Mountain Bike Ogliastra (www.mountainbikeogliastra.it). Their B&B is a relaxed base, with a roof terrace overlooking the mountains and sea, a bouldering wall, and homemade lemon marmalade served at breakfast. They can arrange bike hire and pick-ups, lend you a GPS and give you invaluable tips on hiking, climbing, mountain biking and kayaking.”

PETER AND ANNE, OUTDOOR EXPERTS
Owners of the Lemon House (p 213 ) in Lotzorai, Peter and Anne have been exploring Ogliastra’s wilderness since the 1990s. Peter has bolted some of the 800 climbs in the area, is the co-founder of Mountain Bike Ogliastra, and has covered 25 mountain-bike routes for the new Versante Sud guide. See www.peteranne.it for tips, route itineraries and videos.

The Lemon House B&B; Peter and Anne run this lime-hued , a terrific base for outdoor escapades, with a bouldering wall for limbering up and a relaxing roof terrace for winding down. The sports-loving duo can arrange bike hire and pick-ups, lend you a GPS and give you invaluable tips on hiking, climbing, mountain biking and kayaking. Be sure to try the homemade lemon marmalade at breakfast.

On 10th January 2012 the new Lonely Planet Guide to Sardinia should be in the shops. You can already pre-order it. We helped author Kerry Christiani and her husband Andy with the guide, suggesting walks/climbs/MTB rides and enjoying a lovely day walking down to Cala Goloritzè as the sky cleared after a spring storm. The new guide includes lots of info on outdoor activities, such as these “3 best Sardinian walks“.

Peter started to try to understand Sard (“limba sarda”) seriously when he was writing the Sardinia mountain bike guide (which includes lots of information on Sardinian culture, history and current issues, as well as the detailed descriptions of the rides), and wanted to understand what place names meant. “Su Pirastu Trottu” for example means “il Pero Selvatico Storto”, “the twisted wild pear tree” and is the pass (“genna”) that we come to at 3:00 in this video. Fortunately, at the end of 2011 a series of courses on “sa limba sarda”, were organised, with teachers from the cultural association S’Imbentu based in Ilbono, and Peter started studying in earnest. Try reading first in limba (MUCH harder than it seems…) then in easy Italian some of the “contos” (local stories) from Ilbono, Talana, Baunei, and Urzulei in the great little books “Contos de S’Ogliastra” Grafica del Parteolla written by Ivan of S’Imbentu. These stories, each with its interesting moral dimension, were told to children to entertain and educate them, but the explicit reference to sex and violence in some jumps out at you, often told with brutal and direct language…out of necessity, in the past people had to face up to life’s facts from an early age.

Mountain biking was one of the least-documented activities in Sardinia but we have (just about) fixed that! In December 2011, Versante Sud publishes (it goes to the printers on Monday Dec 5, and will be available just before Xmas) Italian and English editions of the first guide for 20 years to mountain biking in Sardinia, authored by Peter and two Sard biker friends, Amos Cardia and Davide Deidda. ISBN 978-88-96634-44-8. Peter used all our route information, and designed, explored and rode for the first time (sometimes after repeated attempts…) 15 mountain bike routes. The guide has 70 rides in the South and Centre of the island. You will be able to buy the guide in English from Cordee; we will also have it for sale at The Lemon House.

Lonely Planet Author Kerry Christiani and husband Andy visited The Lemon House in March as they researched Sardinia and took photos for the new edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Sardinia coming out in January 2012. Kerry and Andy both like walking, and Peter spent a lovely afternoon with them, walking down to a deserted Cala Goloritzè after the rain stopped but with the sea very rough after a storm. Kerry has included this walk along with the Gola su Gorroppu from Genna Silana and Tiscali from Sa Barva as her three favourite Sardinian walks on articles just published on the BBC Travel Site and on Lonely Planet’s site. Details of all these walks can be found in the Cicerone walking guide and the Rother walking guide to Sardinia as described on our page Sardinia walking guidebooks.

The new Cicerone guide to walking in Sardinia comes out next week. Author Paddy Dillon writes, “So what’s Sardinia like? Well… until recently it had the reputation of being stunningly beautiful, abounding in interest, and desperately difficult to explore because so many paths and tracks would simply peter out in dense, thorny macchia, miles from anywhere. It’s all changed in the past year or two, and there are now lots of well-signposted and waymarked trails, so you can stride out confidently knowing that there’s a way through.The routes in the book stretch from the astounding limestone cliffs of Ogliastra, through the barren Supramonte, to the broad whaleback mountains of Gennargentu. This encompasses some of the highest, wildest and most popular walking routes in Sardinia.”

Paddy stayed with us at The Lemon House for two years running when he was writing the guide so we get a good mention. You will be able to buy the guide from us.

Also read about the book on Paddy’s website.

Versante Sud is progressing well with the pagination of the mountain bike guide to Sardinia Peter, Amos and Davide have written and every day Peter receives drafts to check and to translate into English – the guide will be published in an English edition as well as an Italian edition.
The guide has detailed maps, profiles, and route descriptions to enable you to follow the routes without a GPS. GPS files will be downloadable as well. It’s very nice to see which photos the publisher has decided to include!
We lend a copy of the draft descriptions to our guests at The Lemon House.