When the English barrister John Tyndale visited OLBIA in the 1840s, he compared its Greek name, meaning "happy", with the state he found it in: "A more perfect misnomer, in the present condition of the town, could not be found? The whole district suffers severely from intemperie . The wretched approach across these marshes is worthy of the town itself. The houses, none of which have an elegant or neat appearance, are built mostly of granite, and are whitewashed, as if to give a greater contrast to the filth and dirt within and around them.

"The " intemperie " of which Tyndale complained was malaria, which, together with the marshes and the filth, has long vanished as a result of the land-drainage schemes and DDT-saturation of the 1950s. Olbia today is once more a happy place, enjoying its new-found income from the tourists pouring through the docks and airport. Few of these tourists stay, however, for Olbia - the least Sardinian of all the island's towns - is awash with traffic and ugly apartment blocks which spoil what might once have been an attractive seafront. All the same its numerous bars and restaurants are generally crowded with tourists, sailors from the port and US service personnel from the NATO base on Palau and the Maddalena archipelago, who venture into town to spend their dollars and stalk the main Corso Umberto.

If you're stuck for an afternoon here, you might as well visit Olbia's only item of historical interest, the little basilica of San Símplicio , on the street of the same name. The simple granite structure is set in a piazza apart from Olbia's bustle, making it a good spot for a sit down. Claimed to be the most important medieval monument in the whole of Gallura - a region hardly famed for its artistic heritage - the church formed part of the great Pisan reconstruction programme of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Its murky interior has three aisles separated by pillars and columns recycled from Roman constructions, and even the stoup for the holy water was formerly an urn that held cremated ashes. Along the walls is an array of Roman funerary slabs, with fragments of inscription still visible on some.

The church is the venue for Olbia's biggest festa , six days of processions, costumed dancing, poetry recitations, traditional games and fireworks around May 15, commemorating San Símplicio's martyrdom in the fourth century.