And suddenly there is Cagliari: a naked town rising steep, steep, golden-looking, piled naked to the sky from the plain at the head of the formless hollow bay. It is strange and rather wonderful, not a bit like Italy. The city piles up lofty and almost miniature, and makes me think of Jerusalem: without trees, without cover, rising rather bare and proud, remote as if back in history, like a town in a monkish, illuminated missal. One wonders how it ever got there. And it seems like Spain—or Malta: not Italy.
(David Herbert Lawrence, Sea and Sardinia, 1921)
The Metropolitan city of Cagliari, is situated in the south of Sardinia. It is composed of 17 cities along the coast of the gulf, also called Golfo degli Angeli ("Bay of Angels") after an ancient legend, and has a population of 431.000 inhabitants.
It covers an area on the plain of Campidano between large basins (Santa Gilla lagoon and salt mills of about 1,300 hectares, ponds (Molentargius 1,622 hectares) and the depopulated mountains up to 1,100 metres above sea level.
The Metropolitan City of Cagliari is composed of the municipalities of Cagliari, Assemini, Capoterra, Decimomannu, Elmas, Maracalagonis, Monserrato, Pula, Quartu S.Elena, Quartucciu, Sarroch, Sestu, Selargius, Settimo San Pietro, Sinnai, Villa San Pietro, Uta.
