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This review is about the faboulous island of Sardina or in Italian called Sardegna.
The reason why I decided to write about this island in South Italy is because that is were I grew up during my childhood and teenage years and a big part of whom I am today (apart from my knowledge of oranges like in my previous review) I owe it to this beautiful place.
This land brings some love and hate in me and I will try to convey the reasons of these mixed up feelings in this review so that hopefully you might understand it a bit better and learn to love it like I do.
Sardinia is a sunny place, rather dry in fact.. when you make your way to the island by air make sure you have a peek out of your window where you will see vast patches of brown dark nearly- burnt dry land... completely the opposite to our English fresh an bright green landscapes. Sardinia in fact quite often suffers of long dry summer and also winter spells where water is scarse and therefore really precious and is only available in the morning and evening. If you stay in a hotel you might not experience this but Sardinian people have to live with the real consequences of months and months of no rain where filling buckets with water for when it is not available in the daytime and afternoons is absolutely vital!!
Summers are very VERY hot, and the hot season starts from end of May up until end of September. Usually the weather changes after the 15th August (where Catholics celebrate Ferragosto) where you get the odd shower or cool Maestrale wind from the north announcing the beginning of Autumn but it can still be hot and if you are a sun worshipper you might still get a few hours of tanning! Schools in fact close in the first days of June and re-open end of September... but don't be fooled as kids to to school on Saturdays so we actually make up for the longer holidays where studing with the heat would be absolutely impossible.
GEOGRAPHY ************ I know this might sound a bit boring but I thought it important to cover this area as well, if this does not interest you, you are of course more than welcome to jump to the next subject! Sardinia is an island under the island of Corsica and separated by the Bocche di Bonifacio. It is roughly at the same hight of Lazio (region which has Rome as capital) separated by the Tirreno sea and the south of Sardinia faces the Mediterranean sea. The sardinian population is made up of 1.680.000 inhabitants and its territory is made up of 24.089 km2 of land and if you want to travel by car from top to bottom it takes roughly something like 4hours/ 4 hrs 1/2. Cagliari is the capital of the region and it has a big harbour which faces the Gulf of Cagliari. Main other cities are Nuoro, Oristano, Sassari.
AGRICULTURE ********** Despite the occasional lack of water agriculture does thrive in our land, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, oranges, lemons, onions, figs, peppers,
courgettes... there is nothing that this land cannot produce as far as our mediterranean products are concerned, Sardinia also produces rice and in small towns you will be able to see families sellilng their own produce by their front door and you can be sure farmers do not use chemicals as they do believe in their earth, sun and compost and let me tell you.. people actually take pleasure in eating salads and vegetables because they actually taste of something!! One thing in fact I find very sad is that fruits and vegetables in our UK counters look so perfect and are so expensive but let me tell you.. they are absolutely tasteless... salads are very refreshing, tomatoes are so juicy and sweet you can't stop eating them, apricots are so sweet and ripe you get juice all over your hands when you eat one and they dont' taste like lemons (like the ones I got from Tesco's once)!!! And these basic foods are so cheap it is not a luxury to eat healthy, it is everybody's right to eat proper food which is good for you and ever so tasty!!!
FISHING *********** Fishing has gone down a bit, years and years ago we used to have fisherman's with their own boats (my uncle was a fisherman) and they used to bring back whitebait, prawns, little tasty fishes and eels. Let me tell you that we do not eat jelly eels (sorry but I personally find them revolting) but we have them freshly roasted or in casseroles "Panada" and they are absolutely delicious, their meat is white and sometimes very fat like a fat sole for example and they are crispy in the outside. We have them in special occasions as sometimes they can be very expensive according to their size. We obviously have Sardines, rich of Omega 3, especially good for your brain and overall health and they are so yummy just roasted and I can eat lots of those!!! We also have mussels and clams! If you want a really nice place of spaghetti with any of the two above just heat some extra virgin olive oil, thow in some chopped garlic a little chilli then add the mussels and clams and a few fresh chopped tomatoes, add a small glass or white wine or water instead, some fresh basil and taste the sauce for salt first as these already do naturally have some and you do not want to over do it. Boil some spaghetti on the side and once the mussels and clams have opened and are cooked add the spaghetti and mix. Add some fresh olive oil if wanted and remember... no parmesan cheese with fish! :-)
ARSON ********** Being a very dry land it is very easy for fires to start from just nothing... a simple cigarette butt thrown out of your car window can start a devastating fire which can burn vegetation for hours and hours, raising the temperature of the air even higher and especially on windy days this can get rather bad and very often you see elicopters flying high in the sky carring a huge bucket of water filled by the sea in the fight agains. Although fires can be caused naturally sometimes they can either be caused by a local farmer perhaps wanting to burn a few braches and having the bonfire going out of control or by people who deliberately want to cause destruction for selfish reasons out of spite or jealousy, very sad I know... but luckily nature can be very strong and reserve you a pleasant surprise around a week later where you will see little green leaves sprouting from the burned debris and showing you that nature can regenerate and carry on its course.
SARDINIAN A LIVING LANGUAGE *********** Sardinians are very proud people, they are proud of the land and proud of the fact they could be self sufficient if they wished and proud of their culture. Their individuality also includes the sardinian language called "il Sardo". Sardo is a language influenced a bit by Spanish, in fact we do have similar words like "Sa mesa" the table, "Sa fantana" the window... it has its own grammar and this is the language our grandfathers used to speak daily, Italian was only for the rich and those who could afford going to school, in fact my grandma is illiterate and can't write or read (but was excellent with her calculations when it came to business). Today everybody speaks italian and that is the language kids learn at school but sometimes families speak Sardinian in the house or some school teach it as a diversive subject just because we do not want to forget who we are and where we came from. Sardinian sounds very funny and very often jokes are said with it rather than Italian, we have in fact a very famous commedian in our ilsand called Benito Urgu and that is the only language he would use to communicate to his public, if you want to know more about him you can go to www.artistdirect.com. Bear in mind though that this language can be diverse from north to south and sometimes Sardinians coming from different corners cannot really understand each other so I suppose Italian helped breaking these barriers within our own land.
PRODUCTS ********** If you go to Sardinia remember to try the Mirto which is a very strong liqueur made of pure alchool, sugar and a wild berry typical of our land which in fact gives this drink its name. it is very common for housewifes to make some of it at home and make sure it is on the table on special occasions or when guests are over. Another drink you might know is Limoncello which is instead made of lemon and there is also a creamy version of this which is still strong but has the delicious consistency of cream. These liqueurs are obviously best served icy cold.
Another produce of Sardinia is salt, we have lots of marine salt and the areas where this is produced are called Saline, a famous one close to Cagliari is called "Macchiareddu". If you have a car journey around the area make sure you look out of your window and you will see a unique long legged bird called Fenicottero Rosa (Pink Flamingoes) which take their colour from the food and crustaceans which live in the Saline.
We also have cork oaks and Sardinia is very famous for producing cork used to seal bottles of wine.
A typical pasta shape that comes from Sardinia is Gnochetti Sardi, they look like normal gnocchi but are smaller in shape and are made of durum wheat rather than potato, they sometimes can also have saffron which makes then even tastier. Another lovely type of pasta is Colungiones which are fresh pasta parcels filled with potato mash and mint, very lovely with meat sauce. Otherwise there is Ravioli, made with fresh pasta filled with ricotta cheese and spinach or ricotta cheese with saffron.
Wines are also very famous, to name a few we have a strong red called Cannonau typical from Jerzu or Monica, Vermentino which is a strong white wine, perfect with fish. Wines are very strong and thick, they are not over filtered thefore they do not have the same cosistence of water like sometimes we find in bottled wines in our shelves, these wines are home made by families who have vineyards "Vigneti". Some of them also have "Oliveti" and produce a very lovely olive oil!
Let's not forget "Pecorino Sardo" a lovely semi-cooked hard cheese that is sold either as a "sweet" if young and soft or a "ripened" is old and pungent in taste. This product is gorgeous when freshly grated on your pasta or just simply to be munched after dinner with a piece of fresh crusty bread, much better than Parmiggiano Reggiano I find!!
TRADITIONS *********** Sardinians are catholic and very religious and it is not difficult to spot people wearing a cross or some figure of Jesus or Mary as a pendant to a necklace. A tradition that springs into my mind is the fact that widows wear black all the time, so it is not bad to feel sorry for them when you see old women walking under the midday sun only shielded by a black hanky they use to cover their hair.
Other traditions are the saint celebrations they have during weekends, in fact sometimes during evenings you can hear fireworks from nearby towns which are celebrating in the piazzas of their churches and offer tastes local typical foods and wine for a small fee (Sagra) or folk shows and dances which last up until midnight where everybody is merry and youngsters run up and down with their vespas or scooters to show off with the girls!
A very important celebration is the Sagra of Saint Efisio. The Sagra takes place every year on May 1-4 to celebrate the intervention of Saint Efisio to rescue the citizens of Cagliari from the plague in 1652 which made him the protector of the town. Durin the celebration five thousand people parade dressed with typical costumes together with dozens of carts carried by horses and huge oxes, this is all accompanied by the sound of the "launeddas," typical wind instruments of Sardinia. At the end of the procession, four days later, once the statue of the Saint goes back to its original church, participants can be heard parting saying: "Atrus annus"-"Other years like this."
SIGHTSEEING *********** Sardinia has lots of beauties, of course if you want to sunbathe you are spoilt for choice between Villasimius or Pulain the south or Porto Cervo, Costa Smeralda (Emerald coast) up north (where all the VIPs go). When it comes to history do go and look at the Nuraghe buildings in Barumini which are ancient towers made of stone and go back to the 11th - 6th century BC. We also have the Caves of Is Zuddas with stalactite-stalagmite making strange shapes all carved by nature. In Cagliari you have the beautiful views from Castello "Castle" the old town which faces the gulf and the whole town, absolutely breathtaking! Every Sunday the Bastione in Castello holds a second hand market where you can purchase all sorts of items, from coins and stamps to old clothes, bags, books and car parts!
HOW TO GET TO SARDINIA ************ Ryanair and Easyjet offer low cost flights to this land.
Ryanair goes from Stansted to Alghero and to book just go to www.ryanair.co.uk
Easyjet instead goes to Cagliari and Olbia and for this just go to easyject.co.uk
Ryanair flights are in general a bit cheaper but since they all fly in different areas your choice is more based on the destination than the choice of airline in itself. Do bear in mind that while Ryanair files to this island all year round easyjet only seems to do flights from the spring time until autumn. BA does sometimes a few direct flights during the summer from London Gatwick so if money is not an issue and you do want to fly in style this might be your option. Indirect flights from Milan and Rome are also available but this will mean a whole day wasted travelling and cost might be a bit higher.
As far as inland transport is concerned do remember that Italians do drive on the right and to be honest you will not be able to see much of this place if you do not rent a car or a scooter. Transport is not bad but remember you are not in a big city so buses stop around 11 and so do trains, there is no underground but Cagliari has lots of buses which do serve the city well and a daily ticket costs no more than €2.50.
MY OPINION *********** Sardinia is a lovely island and I love going there, food is gorgeous and so is wine, you certainly have lots to see and you are spoilt for choice on which beach to visit if all you want to do is just nothing.
The only downside I suppose is for people who live there, unfortunately unemployment is a serious problem and it is not hard to find youngsters in their thirties still living in their families without a proper job or a job which matches their qualifications, that is all very sad as this land has so much potential, but at the same time although it can offer so much to tourists Sardinian do want to keep their identity and do not want to change their land into a touristy greek type of island with lots of hotels in every corner.
When you go to Sardinia every year it does look like time stops, like nothing changes and although it can be a negative to people it gives a feeling that they still live on solid ground and that their land has and identity which does not change and knows where it comes from.
The products the island produces are infinite and the ones I mentioned are really only a few of the ones available so despite the fact that when you first come in the island the environment looks inhospitable in fact it is actually a rainbow of surprises and lots of things to discover.
I would definitely give this island a try, if you are very posh and loaded do go to Costa Smeralda in the north but do not expect to experience the true nature of this place, if you are more adventurous and don't mind doing some sign language if you bump into a non-english speaker then go south to Cagliari and savour the slow taste of a sunny life where people pop to the beach for a tan during their lunchbreaks and youngsters meet in the piazzas in the evening for an ice cream and a laugh rather than to get themselves drunk.
A suggestion if I may... do not leave your posh shades home as you will have strong competition!!
never considered sardinia before for a holiday but after reading your review, I am intrigued and will definately consider going here for my next holiday. excellent review.
torr 14.07.2007 00:44
Good to have such a knowledgeable and detailed insight. I was there a few years ago (there's a review somewhere) and liked it very much, but I managed to avoid the Costa Smeralda. Duncan
queenmaebh 13.07.2007 18:24
Beauty!! Oh Wow -what a review and what a country! (I have been there on holiday, my daughter is au-pairing on Tenerife this month - I will definitely show her this!)
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