SARDINIA NOT COSTA SMERALDA

 

“L’ invitation au voyage” becomes an intense reality, no matter how good the wine we are sipping is, when sitting by our window we watch all the beautiful cruisers leave the port of Genoa. So, end of summer, we went off to Sardinia intending to tour the whole island in ten days, Costa Smeralda included. We ended touring half the island, Costa Smeralda not included, and very eager to see the rest of it. The overnight crossing to Olbia on the north east coast was very comfortable, the food on board was reasonably priced well served and…edible.

 

Renting a car in Olbia, at the port, before we left proved frustrating and impossible when we tried to do it online; there were no renting cars from the port of Olbia, only from the airport or an industrial estate. Yet once at the Olbia terminal, we found many reasonable car rental firms with available cars, so off we went on our Grand Tour starting from Olbia and going south along the coast, miles and miles of golden sands and turquoise or deep blue seas, with tortuous, torn rocks and cliffs, red ones, black ones, white ones, scattered with medieval watch towers perched on precarious promontories. Spectacular never ending beauty but never boring!

 

Food and wine by the seaside was adequate as demi-pension, but can really be good and very ethnic if they would let you have it à la carte; some places were delighted to do it, others could not be bothered! But by far the best food and wine, and the most Sardinian occurred eating inland in places like Issili and Nuoro. We wanted to go to Issili to visit some of the most amazing prehistoric sites imaginable: the Nuraghi, or home and burial grounds of prehistoric people during and before the bronze age, 39 centuries before our time! Sardinia must be the largest prehistoric or ancient open air museum in the world! One of the best was at Buramini, but there are so many sites, and they are still discovering new ones all the time, some in amazingly good condition. Some amazing Nuraghian tools, statuettes and bronze artifacts were found during excavations.

 

 

 Aside the Nuraghic civilisation, you have the Phoenician and Punic remains dating 4th and 3rd century BC with their own beautiful additions, Roman baths, theatres, in such wonderful condition you could almost imagine their past! Menhirs and dolmens (remember Brittany?) Domus de Janas (house of fairies, isn’ t it a lovely name for a burial ground?) Tombe dei Giganti, pozzi sacri, (sacred wells), all there, in situ and looking grand! To me one of the best archeological experiences I have ever had, and we did not even see half of it. An experience that almost surpassed my eeriness at the sight of Macchu Pichu in Peru 25 years ago. To crown it all, you have the local traditions, the colourful processions, the celebrations in full costumes either for a saint or a local festival, especially in the hills such as in Monte Ortobene, near Nuoro, celebrating the festival of the Redentore. (Redeemer). I could go on for ever, but this is not an essay on Sardinia but the reflection of our enthusiasm on discovering such a wonderful place, with local food like curacu bread (also called carta di musica, it is so, so thin and delicious!) suckling pig, kid, lamb, their antipasti, their home made pasta everywhere. What a beautiful experience! Nuraghic artifacts Roman theatre and Punic plus Roman temple BC old mosaic floor in open air; detail from above pict. Stagno di Cogolone in the mountains Locals in colourful costumes Foreigners in drab Costumes! HOW TO GET TO SARDINIA There are many routes, especially direct flights from most countries in Europe. UK visitors have a choice of Ryanair to Alghero, or British Airways to Cagliari. Air fares are getting more and more competitive, unless you have to go in August, which happens to be the most crowded and expensive time to go, on account of the holiday influx of mainland Italians who are, by and large, creatures of habit. There are a number of ferries from Italy to a number of different ports in Sardinia, so if you want to, you can take your own car. But it is much les stressful to fly to Genoa, Pisa or Rome and take ferries from nearby departure points. There’ s usually a car rental office in all the ports and again, if you can avoid August, you can avoid the madness of crowds. May, June and September are the best bets. Driving around in Sardinia is not as hazardous as one would think. Most of the roads are pretty good, although driving around the hinterland can lead to sudden losses of tarmac without warning! But this is all part of the fun, especially when you realise that all the road maps are years out of date. There are a lot of new roads built with EC money of course, (or is it easy money?) which now take you from A to B with astonishing rapidity, but that’s no fun – it’ s the really wiggley ones that you really want to try! And the spectacular scenery that they go through makes the effort worthwhile. Of course, by sticking to the little roads, you totally underestimate the time it takes to get from A to B, but Sardinia is not a big island and there are seaside resorts everywhere to cater for the homeless. Underestimate we did, which is why we only managed to see half the island in our allotted time. So we are looking forward to doing the other half next year when we will report on that and also our overall impressions of the island as a whole. In touring Sardinia, it doesn’ t really matter where you start or finish, the majestic scenery, the historical sites and above all the warmth of the people (unlike the Corsicans – but that’ s another story) will make you want to return again and again.