Range Rover

There are places where the arrival matters as much as the destination, and the Costa Smeralda is one of them. Drawing up at the valet stand of a five-star hotel in Porto Cervo in a Range Rover finished in Santorini Black is a way of making an entrance without raising your voice: no theatrics, no exhaust note, simply a presence that needs no announcing. This is the car for the transfers that count — dinners that deserve a proper arrival, guests to be collected from the marina in exactly the right style.

And there is one occasion on which this flagship has no rival: the wedding day. Between the country churches of Gallura and the resorts overlooking the sea, the Range Rover is the natural choice for the couple and the families around them — a subject we explore at length in our guide to choosing the right car for a wedding in Sardinia. A second row that feels like first class, air suspension that lowers the car for a graceful step aboard, room for gowns and flowers: every detail works in the day's favour.

The 3.0-litre mild-hybrid straight-six is almost an abstraction: 400 hp delivered as one full, unbroken surge — 0–100 km/h in 5.8 seconds, no small feat for a flagship — while the sound remains a distant murmur, filtered through double glazing and active noise cancellation that turn the cabin into a reading room. The 8-speed automatic shifts without the body ever registering it; the steering is light, calibrated for unhurried distance; and the air suspension smooths Sardinia's imperfect tarmac before it can reach the seats.

The four-wheel steering is the detail that surprises most: the car effectively shrinks around you in tight manoeuvres, so the lanes of old Olbia or a hotel parking ramp stop being a consideration at all. Out on the open road, the elevated driving position serves up that view over the landscape — dry-stone walls, juniper, the sea appearing beyond a bend — which on its own justifies choosing an SUV for the itinerary.

The Autobiography is the Range Rover at its most complete: semi-aniline leather, ventilated and massaging seats, a second row designed as much for those being driven as for the person driving. The SV moves up another level again, with materials worked to commission — ceramics, open-pore veneers, satin-finished metals — and a degree of craftsmanship that brings it closer to a private suite than a motor car.

Both are booked the same way: a message to our WhatsApp concierge with your dates and delivery point, from a quayside in Gallura to Cagliari airport. The full sweep of the marque — Sport, Velar and Defender included — is gathered on our Range Rover rental page, within a fleet of more than 100 models and 150-plus versions. Check availability and tell us the occasion: the right version tends to suggest itself.