Circle & Key presents

The Two Wild Islands

A Private Passage Through Corsica & Sardinia

10 Days · 9 Nights · Corsica → Sardinia

The Preface

There is another Mediterranean.

Beyond the famous hotels, crowded harbors and tables everyone knows how to reserve, two islands have held something back.

Corsica and Sardinia sit barely a few miles apart, yet each has fiercely protected its own identity. Mountains fall abruptly into translucent water. Ancient communities remain tied to the land. Food still belongs to where it is made. And along great stretches of coastline, the ultimate luxury remains remarkably simple: being entirely alone.

For five nights in Corsica, a centuries-old stone residence at Domaine de Murtoli becomes home. Then there is no airport. A private yacht carries you south, across the Strait of Bonifacio and through the islands of La Maddalena to Sardinia, where an exceptional private waterfront estate becomes yours for four nights.

Two islands. Two homes.

One uninterrupted journey through the wild Mediterranean.

Some parts of this journey have deliberately been left out.

Day 01 · Southern Corsica

Arrival in the Wild

“The Mediterranean before it became a destination.”

Arrive in Corsica by private aircraft and continue south, where roads narrow, villages disappear and the landscape becomes progressively wilder. Somewhere between mountains, maquis and sea, a centuries-old stone residence is waiting. There is no grand hotel entrance. Your bags simply disappear. The doors are open. The pool is yours. Beyond it lies seemingly endless Corsican countryside.

And for the remainder of the day, nothing is required of you. Walk. Swim. Sleep. Explore the estate. Or don't.

As sunset reaches the hills, drinks appear outside your house. Dinner follows nearby, built around ingredients from the estate and the island itself. No formal welcome. You have simply arrived home.

Tonight · Domaine de Murtoli

Day 02 · The Corsican Maquis

The Island From Within

“To understand an island, meet the people who chose never to leave it.”

Today is not about monuments. It is about Corsica.

Move through the countryside with people whose lives reveal different sides of the island—land, family, food, independence, tradition and the complicated pride that comes with being Corsican. There will be conversations. There will be food. There will be places we haven't told you about.

Lunch happens somewhere that belongs completely to its surroundings. Then return home. The afternoon is yours.

The Experience · Somewhere in the Maquis

As evening falls, we leave again. We won't tell you exactly where. Only that dinner is waiting somewhere in the Corsican landscape. And that not everything planned for tonight appears on this page.

Day 03 · Bonifacio

The Edge of the Island

“The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Today, the southern tip of Corsica. Bonifacio sits at the very edge, a fortified town suspended above the Mediterranean on white limestone cliffs. We approach it by sea for the full effect: a citadel that seems to have grown directly from the rock.

A private guide walks us through its lanes, not as a tour group, but as visitors entering a place that has defended itself for centuries. The views are extraordinary. The history is palpable. The sense of being at the end of one world is exactly the point.

Lunch is nearby, somewhere simple and excellent. Then we return to the estate for the afternoon.

The Experience · The Open Sea

Tonight, the first of two dinners built entirely around the sea: fish, shellfish, herbs from the maquis, and wine chosen from the island. Nothing complicated. Everything local.

Day 04 · Crossing

The Strait of Bonifacio

“There is no airport today. Only the sea.”

The morning is deliberately slow. Then, after breakfast, we leave the house by car and drive to the small port of Bonifacio. There is no announcement. A 40-meter yacht is waiting.

The crossing itself is the journey. We move through the Strait of Bonifacio, past the Lavezzi islands, and into the waters of La Maddalena. The crew knows the coastline. Lunch is served on deck. The afternoon unfolds at sea: swimming, reading, dozing, watching the islands pass.

By late afternoon, we arrive at a private waterfront estate on Sardinia. The crossing is complete.

Tonight · Private Sardinian estate

Swimming from the yacht off the Sardinian coast

Day 05 · La Maddalena

The Islands of the Wind

“Sardinia begins not on land, but in the water.”

The Maddalena archipelago is one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the Mediterranean, and one of the most difficult to reach well. We spend the day among its islands, moving slowly, stopping where the water changes color, eating on board, swimming in coves that have no road access.

This is not a yacht day. It is a day in which the sea itself becomes the destination.

The Experience · The Beach No One Else Finds

We land on one particular island late in the afternoon. It is not on the itinerary. It does not need to be. It is simply the right place to be today.

Clear water in the Maddalena archipelago

Day 06 · Sardinia

The Sardinian Inland

“Sardinia is not only coastline. The interior is older, quieter, and far more surprising.”

We move inland to a part of Sardinia few visitors see. The landscape becomes ancient, almost lunar. Dry stone, cork oak, and villages that feel as if they have been held in place for centuries.

Lunch is with a family or a shepherd. The food is elemental: roasted meat, bread, cheese, wine. The conversation is about the island, the seasons, the choices people have made to stay.

We return to the coast in the late afternoon. The evening is free at the estate.

Tonight · Private Sardinian estate

Day 07 · Sardinia

The Day of No Plans

“Luxury is not always what happens. Sometimes it is what does not.”

This is a day left deliberately empty. The estate, the beach, the water, the kitchen, the terrace. The choice is entirely yours. Some guests do nothing at all. Others arrange something small: a morning swim, a walk, a drive, a dinner somewhere nearby.

The point is not the activity. The point is that the day is not organized for you.

Tonight · Private Sardinian estate

Day 08 · Sardinia

The Sardinian Kitchen

“The island's food is inseparable from its identity.”

We spend the day around food, but not in a formal way. A visit to a market, a meeting with a cook, a long lunch somewhere that feels like it has been there forever. We learn how Sardinian food is shaped by the land, the sea, and the seasons.

The evening is a private dinner at the estate, built around the day's ingredients and the island's wines.

Tonight · Private Sardinian estate

Day 09 · Sardinia

The Last Island

“Every journey should end with one day that feels completely yours.”

The final full day is unscripted. We can arrange a boat, a drive, a dinner, a visit, or nothing at all. The sea is still there. The kitchen is still there. The house is yours.

Some guests spend the whole day on the water. Others barely leave the terrace. Both are correct.

Tonight · Private Sardinian estate

Day 10 · Departure

The Return

“You leave as you arrived: quietly, privately, without ceremony.”

After breakfast, a private transfer to the airport. The sea is calm. The house is already fading. The islands remain.

This is the end of the itinerary. It is not the end of the journey.

The Two Wild Islands

The Mediterranean is still capable of keeping secrets.

10 days · 9 nights
5 nights in Corsica
4 nights in Sardinia
Two private homes · One crossing by sea

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