You’ve been cooped up all week. First, you prepared for what was supposed to be a record-breaking blizzard. Then you watched the snow fall, staying inside and off the roads like you were supposed to. Now you’re waiting for the next round of flurries. But the whole time, your mind has been elsewhere. You’ve been dreaming of warm, sunny destinations, specifically ones that include beautiful beaches.

Spiaggia Rosa is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The Pink Beach really does have pink-colored sand. It’s blushing pink color comes from microscopic fragments of corals, shells, and granite specks. Low shrubs, rocky outcrops, and wild rabbits border one side of the beach. Turquoise water and seagrass line the other side. While small islands stand in the distance. But no one is allowed on this beach anymore.

This perfect beach is on the uninhabited island of Budelli in the Maddalena Archipelago. The archipelago sits in the Strait of Bonifacio, in between Corsica and Sardinia. It includes many small islets and seven main islands, only three of which are inhabited. They were once a busy shipping and strategic naval area. Now the windblown, granite islands are part of Arcipelago di La Maddalena National Park, a geomarine park and wildlife haven.

Spiaggia Rosa was once on everyone’s must-see list when they visited La Maddalena, the largest town on the islands. Movies were even filmed on the beach. But too many travelers, most who wanted to take some of the colorful sand home with them, eroded the beach and left the blushing pink sand more of a blushing white color. People were forbidden. A footpath was built. While boats, trailed by dolphins and sperm whales, keep creeping closer and closer to the shore. And Spiaggia Rosa remains one of the most captivating—and dreamt about—beaches in the world.