Olbia
Olbia is one of the most dynamic towns of Sardinia, the tourism has reinforced its economy and, mostly in summer, is the point of maximum passage in Sardinia: port and airport work at fast rate, especially with the tourists that come from abroad. It is one of the two chief towns of the new Province of Olbia-Tempio. The rich tourism of the Costa Smeralda has given to Olbia a remarkable impulse of socio-economic increase.
There are not many museums and archaeological sites. The basilica of San Simplicio was constructed at the end of the XI century and completed at the beginning of the XII. Dedicated to the Saint patron of Olbia and Gallura, martyred when Rome was under the guide of the Emperor Diocleziano, guards in its interior the wooden simulacrum representing Saint Simplicio: it goes back to the XVII century. In the before large square, are still present some milestones planted by the Romans along the road that connected Olbia to Telti. The Umberto I avenue is the drawing-room of this locality: it leads to the nineteenth-century part of the town, where there are numerous palaces of great value. In the old town center are found some workshops: the ceramists of Olbia are renowned, their vases and their pieces of furniture are very demanded.
The local market offers also excellent artifacts in wood and in iron wrought or enameled. On 15th May on occasion of the festivity of San Simplicio, the Saint patron of Olbia, the citizenship poured into the streets of the old town center.
