Poetto
Poetto is the main beach of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy. It stretches for about 8 km, from Sella del Diavolo up to the coastline of Quartu Sant'Elena. Poetto is also the name of the district located on the western stretch of the strip between the beach and Molentargius - Saline Regional Park.
Etymology
The name of the beach supposedly derives from an Aragon Tower named "Poet's Tower", which is still visible above the Sella del Diavolo. Another hypothesis is that the name "Poetto" is linked to the Catalan pohuet, referring to the numerous wells and tanks scattered on the Sella del Diavolo for the storage of rainwater. The name could also derive from the Spanish word puerto, since the first part, Marina Piccola, is also a port.History
Until 1900 Poetto beach was not very popular with Cagliaritans, who instead preferred the west side of the Golfo degli Angeli, with the beaches of Sa Perdixedda and Giorgino. It was during the first decades of the 20th century that people began to appreciate the white dunes of Poetto, and the first seaside resorts, bars and even a hospital were built. A number of casotti were built, imitating the first Lido's "cabine". The casotti, however, were entirely removed in 1986 for sanitation reasons. Their removal, the overcrowding, and a lack of erosion prevention work, caused a gradual dispersal of sand and a fast erosion of the shoreline in the nineties.To avoid the disappearance of the beach, a rainbowing was tried on the Cagliari side in 2002: the sand was reclaimed and sprayed onto the beach using a fleet of dredging ships a few miles from the shore, in an attempt to restore the beach to its original size. However, the result was not as successful as expected: the white, fine-grained sand was replaced by sand of a completely different color, size and consistency. Years later the situation has not improved, and the quartese stretch, which initially remained intact after a few years, has now begun to have the same problems due to the removal of sand by the wind, people and the sea. Image:Molentargius map g1.jpg|thumb|Poetto Location