Sardinia

Well here we are in Sardinia, much hotter than we expected for October and far fewer cars on the road.  Driving seems quite ‘un-Italian’, it’s considerate, the horn is used only exceptionally and drivers are fairly courteous and stop for pedestrians.   Actually I’ll rephrase that, completely un-Italian, although parking is interesting.   Everywhere and anywhere sums it up.   Double parked, diagonal into the pavement, on the pavement,  in ,well the middle of the road and in the tiniest of gaps, they’re all here.  I watched one woman in a gold medal performance get her car out of a gap that I would have put money on being less than the diagonal length of the vehicle.  She must have had no more than a few inches either end, went back and forwards about ten times and to my amazement got out.   Naturally we park with a big space just in case we get blocked.

Mosquitoes are a bit of a problem but at least the island is now free of malaria which it had until the early fifties.  The Americans cleared that up by dosing the island with 10,000 tons ! of DDT.  Apparently the effects are still being measured.   But at least I don’t have to take any horrible anti-malarials, so that’s all right then.

We’ve noticed that Horses and Donkeys all have the same name here in Sardinia and it’s Lunch.  Most menus have Beef Steak, Horse Steak and Donkey Steak listed and although I have had beef, horse and donkey don’t appeal to me.   Unusually, food is more restricted for us than we imagined in Italy but Pizza and Pasta are ubiquitous and squeeze other things out.   Occasionally a risotto, but roasted vegetables and a bit more imagination would be welcome.   I am overdosed on cheese.    Having a picnic of bread, cheese and tomatoes, followed by a dinner of pizza, then the next day a similar lunch with dinner of a starter of cheese and olives followed by ravioli stuffed with ricotta, I choose the local dessert, only to find that it was a pastry covered in honey but filled with cheese was a bit OTT.  Mind you I did have bread, cheese and tomatoes for lunch the next day.   Fortunately the markets have locally grown stuff so we do buy peaches and figs and they are delicious, as is the bread.   It is always a problem timing any trip because we’d love to be here for the spring flowers but then the fruits wouldn’t be ripe.  Not what you could call a problem in the greater scheme of things though.  On the important subject of Pizza, the local style is excellent  but it is de rigeur to overlap the edge of the plate all round.

It’s a very peaceful island and complete quiet can be easily found in the countryside.  I haven’t noticed one plane flying overhead in a week.   The mountains are particularly peaceful and we’ve seen very few others tourists, some individuals in more than one place.      

Language hasn’t been too much of a problem seeing as how our Italian is about as good as our Gujerati,  Serbo-Croat or Icelandic.   We’ve got by, due in no small measure to the friendliness and helpfulness of the locals.   It’s a lovely place, green in parts and brown in others at the end of the summer.  We’ve only seen the west coast so far and they have avoided the blight of strip development along the sea, with most of what we’ve seen being blissfully clear.  There are some local laws that not only forbid building too close to the sea but seem to be adhered to.

Still heading north and probably planning to miss the Costa Smeralda because I think the ostentatious wealth displays will sicken us.

A week and a bit to go.  See you soon.