Ancient Arbatax

Sardinia's fewer than 10,000 square miles are outlined by over a thousand miles of towering sea cliffs and tide pools teeming with life. The Italian island's coasts, though largely rocky rather than beachy, still draw a sizeable faction of tourists awed by impossibly ancient landmarks like the Red Rocks of Arbatax. These spectacular porphyry pillars are just one product of Sardinia's once-violent geology that dates back 500 million years. But it seems the sunny isle got all that moving and shaking out of its system: Today, it's one of the few regions of Italy not susceptible to earthquakes.