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| 1500 BC fort of Nuraghe civilization, Sardinia |
After three busy days in three different ports, we are ready
for a sea day before three more consecutive days in three more ports. This was not a surprise as of course, we knew
the itinerary before we left home. And
now we are in the heart of this new adventure to very, very different
destinations.
We visited the northern part of the second largest island in
the Mediterranean – Sardinia (Sicily being the largest). The dawn broke cloudy damp, and cool which
was certainly quite a contrast to the last few mornings which have been bright
and sunny. I had selected a tour called
Sardinian Roots, a seven hour tour of several places in northern Sardinia. It’s an island now a part of Italy that has
been under various countries’ control over the centuries. The Phoenicians,
Romans, and Byzantines influenced the development of Sardinia in ancient times
while, the Moors, Spanish, and Italians had done so in more recent
centuries. Today Sardinia has a
population of about 1.6 million people.
Until recently tourism has not been big but agriculture has. We saw orchards of olive trees and we were
told that Sardinia supplies most of Italy’s need for artichokes. For perspective purposes, 41° latitude runs
through Sardinia (and Chicago is around 42° latitude.
As we got on our bus, we were looking through rain-streaked
windows. We left Porto Torres where the
ship was docked and headed into the countryside toward a small town of Ittiri
for an immediate “coffee break. It
seemed unusual to me until I later read the itinerary and found it was to have
been our last stop so the itinerary had been reversed for our bus. We were dropped off in front of a church but
had to go down about 30 stairs to a street and continue walking downhill to the
little coffee shop. Of course all of
this was done during our first substantial rain of the whole cruise. There was nothing noteworthy about the town
other than it was probably a typical Italian town, so as soon as it was nearly
time to go back to the bus, we walked uphill to the stairs that we climbed to
reach the bus.
Off we went to 11th or 12th century
Basilica of San Pietro di Sorres and the Benedictine monastery whilch was
located far out in the countryside with no nearby homes which meant people had
to make a substantial effort to get there back in the day before quick and easy
transportation. The sanctuary was dark,
made even darker because the tour guide was unable to find anyone to turn on
some lights. After a short visit to the
monastery, we also had a chance to
admire the monastery’s cloister.
Our next stop was probably the most unique visit of the
day. Fortunately by this time, the rain
had stopped though the clouds were still heavy and gray. We were taken to a major archeological site
in the Nuraghe Valley in northern Sardinia.
There, from the road, we could see a large domed structure made from
stone. These were undoubtedly built by
the Nuraghe civilization which dates back to about 1500 BC. They were likely to have been the original
settlers in Sardinia – thus the title of our excursion: Sardinian Roots. These stone structures of a spherical shape
might be considered similar to that of igloos.
But what was particularly noteworthy was that there were some stairs of
very roughly cut rocks that allowed for a second floor and the ability to walk
on the roof above the second floor. For
an ancient civilization to create a structure that allowed people to get to a
second floor and on the roof was a real achievement of engineering. These Nuraghe Towers were considered to be
primarily a defensive structure but probably the tribal leaders lived in them
with their families. It is estimated
that about 700 of these structures have been found throughout Sardinia though
the one we saw was the most significant in northern Sardinia.
By that time it was lunchtime and we had a very short ride
to the small restaurant where a light lunch was ready, consisting of some hard,
thick pieces of bread, various kinds of cheeses, ham and salami, as well as
bottled water and wine. For dessert,
there were several kinds of cookies and expresso for those who wanted it.
Our final stop of the day bought us to one last church, the
Church of the Holy Trinity of Saccargia, also seemingly located out in the
middle of nowhere. It too dates to the
12th century. Surprisingly
the word “Saccargia” seems to be derived from the word “cow” and there are
engraving of cows above the main entrance to the church. The church has a
single nave with a three apses transept.
The central apse has a large fresco that dates to the 11th
century and is still in remarkably excellent condition!
By the time we returned to the ship, the sun was shining and
the sky was blue, but too late to enjoy the otherwise beautiful landscapes and
the churches and other buildings we had seen.
Updating the stories at the end of the previous blog from
Minorca, we are happy to report that Alice is doing much better and seems to
have gotten over the ailment that sent her reeling with the 102° temperature in
Barcelona two days ago. We have heard
nothing more of others getting sick and it does not appear that the illness has
expanded to any other guests beyond those on the same bus on the Marrakesh
overland excursion a week ago. Alice
imposed her own quarantine through Saturday and plans to finally go out into
“public” again on Sunday, but disappointingly had to miss two new places for
her: Minorca and Sardinia. Regarding the couple that was reportedly left
in Minorca because they didn’t get back to the ship on time, we heard that the
couple was enjoying themselves so much in Minorca, that they decided to stay
for a few days and rejoin the ship three days later in Naples! Quite obviously they hadn’t informed the ship
or the port of their spur of the moment decision. We understand that in cases of this nature,
the ship leaves passports with the port.
Now we have a sea day before Naples, Italy, a city that I
think I will have visited six times when we sail into that familiar port.
CT
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