Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda somehow resisted both. See all of our newslettersThe Consorzio Costa Smeralda, a body few travelers have heard of, is the organization that operates as the planning authority and conservation trust. The governing principle is simple: the coastline’s greatest luxury is not what gets built, but what never does. “Costa Smeralda is a brand before it is a place, a mark certifying a standard,” Federico Casula, the consortium’s public relations executive, tells Observer. His trajectory here distills the Costa Smeralda formula: growth measured in tables and quality, never in buildings.