2025 - Three Weeks in Italy
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The Hendersons 2025 - Three Weeks in Italy - Sardinia |
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2025 - Three Weeks in Italy |
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Tuesday, 22 April After breakfast in the B and B son Tom and I took a short walk to La Martorana, but, alas, we couldn’t tour because of crowds and schedule. We took a taxi to the Palermo airport for a flight to
Alghero, Sardinia. Rather to our surprise the check in, security and
boarding were efficient and the plane departed only one minute late. I had a
window seat and was pleased with the beautiful scenery below. There are a
lot of mountains with mesas atop, the flat grounds reminded me of England
with green fields separated by hedge rows. The plane landed 20 minutes early
and we checked out our rental car. Son Tom is the primary driver as there
are some car rental companies that will not rent to drivers over age 80. We drove the roughly 100 miles to a lovely little
town south of Alghero, Oristano. We were surprised by the narrow, curving
and oft times bumpy roads. En route, though, we passed fields with beautiful
wild flowers and a lot of sheep – and huge rocks. Our hotel was very close to the Duomo or cathedral.
We checked in and son Tom and I walked to a nearby grocery store for
supplies. There was a restaurant near that had good recommendations, but it
was closed for continued celebration, Pasquetta, which in theory is only the
Monday after Easter, but seems to be stretching beyond. We ended up having a very indifferent meal at a local
restaurant. Wednesday, 23 April After breakfast in the hotel we visited the Duomo. It
isn’t as grand as those we saw in Sicilia, but well maintained and quiet.
Sardinia has hundreds of structures that are thought
to have been built about 1400 years before Christ. In an area south east of
Oristano is a World Heritage Site called Barumini which has a complex built
by prehistoric people. Those folks had plenty of raw material as the
shelters and towers were built from rough stones that they fitted together
to create structures for dwelling and protection. They located the
structures near rivers so they had potable water. We took a tour of Barumini, led by a young woman from
Palermo. The tour was interesting although rather challenging as there were
a lot of stairs (no hand rails, try to grip indents in the stones). The site
can only be visited on a tour for safety reasons, which is understandable
given the challenges of walking on such uneven terrain.
The drive back to Oristano was about as challenging
as the drive to Barumini, bumpy roads, lots of roundabouts. We needed to do
laundry so we loaded the clothes in a suitcase and son Tom drove me to the
laundromat, which was very clean and modern. Actually had commercial grade
dryers. The restaurant that we tried to go to last night was still closed so we walked a few blocks to a commercial area and found an excellent restaurant with some very intriguing pasta. We selected a dish of pasta that looks like small rope twisted together. It is called lorighittas or Iron ring. It is handmade in a small Sardinian village called Morgongiori. The history is interesting because it is used to celebrate All Saints’ Day. Here is a link to how to make them: https://cookingwiththeskinnyguinea.com/homemade-lorighittas We found them on line
but the price is about $24 a pound. We’ll
stick to Barilla at $1.69 a pound but we
may try to make it ourselves for fun. The dish, was served with a ragu of
cinghiale or wild boar. It was wonderful, made up for last night’s
indifferent meal. We splurged and had a bottle of Sardinian wine and a
dolce. The treat was when the waiter gave us a couple of lemons from his
garden. We’ve never seen such large lemons.
Thursday, 24 April I can’t say this was the best day we’ve had so far as
the driving was very stressful for son Tom and the navigation stressful for
Tom. We left the hotel and drove to a small town which is
described as the most beautiful village in Italy. The drive was on roads
that were so small I thought they were tractor trails, not real roads. Once
again the scenery was beautiful. We drove to Bosa. The view of the village
from the vantage point above is stunning, but the traffic in the village is
terrible. We headed to our next destination, Nuoro. The town is
well known for its museums, especially the Costume Museum. Unfortunately,
our navigation system got hopelessly confused and we had a lot of tension
trying to find our lodging. The town is hilly, windy and has a lot of
one-way streets. After multiple attempts to find our way we called the owner
and she met Tom and me at a piazza. Son Tom was car sitting as he was on
edge from the terrible driving. Our hostess, Marta, led us to the lodging
and we decided to hunker down and try to relax. The Costume Museum will wait
until tomorrow. Friday, We had breakfast in the flat then ventured out to see
the costume museum. We weren’t prepared for the wonderful displays and the
in-depth history lesson. The displays show life size figures of people doing
daily chores like milking the goats for the famous pecorino. There is a room
which chronicles the human life on this Island, dating back thousands of
years. Just about everyone who lived near invaded this area - Phoenicians,
Normans, Spanish, French, Arabs. Sadly the capital Cagliari was 75%
destroyed in World War ll. At the top of the museums is a large collection
of traditional costumes, for both men and women. I learned later that these
costumes are worn today for special occasions, such as weddings and Saints’
days. On Saints’ days the villages have parades and the citizens wear their
finest.
The drive to our next stop, Olbia, was less difficult than that to Nuora. We got the car fueled with some difficulty, found our hotel, checked in and left our luggage, then drove to the airport to return the car, had a lunch and returned to our hotel. Son Tom and I had a long walk to see the church of San Paolo, which was built from Roman ruins in the late middle ages. The church was closed, but we got to see the beautiful dome.
We walked through the very lively old town to the Basilica of San
Simplico, another very old church, this in the Romanesque style. We learned
that San Simplico is quite revered and on his saint’s day people parade in
traditional costumes. We had hoped to take in the archeology museum, which
is supposed to be very good, but it was closed for renovation.
We had dinner at a small restaurant near our hotel.
Tom had a plate called “elephant ears” which was a lovely veal cutlet,
pounded thin, breaded and sautéed. It was served with fries and a small
salad and was more than he could eat. Back to the hotel for an early to bed as tomorrow we
have an early flight to Roma.
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