Sardinia

We found Sardinia to be a land of contrast: there is a Sardinia of large villas, luxury hotels and yacht harbors; a Sardinia of mountains, shepherds and farmers; the archeological Sardinia with four to six thousand year old ruins; and the Sardinia of sunbathers wearing half of a tiny bikini.

Located on Sardinia’s northeast coast, the Cala Di Volte is a fashionable resort built by the Aga Kahn as a playground and destination resort for Kings, Queens, and other wealthy vacationers who want to see and be seen. (No, we didn’t spent the night.) We spoke to the concierge of the hotel and told him we were traveling through Sardinia in an RV. He was very interested in our mode of travel, got out his maps and gave us information that proved very helpful.

The scenery in this area, is marvelous. Many vacation homes and condos already exist, or are being built; there are many boats in the yacht basins, with room for more.

Agriculture is important to the economy of Sardinia, especially sheep and goats, wheat and barley, grapes and olives. We saw acres of cork trees and there were always interesting cork covered pottery, and other cork items for sale in the stores. To harvest, the thick bark is sliced off the tree trunk, dried in huge piles, then made into various products, the most familiar being bottle stoppers. In the town of Flussio we saw reeds drying on the sidewalks. We stopped and watched the ladies weave baskets; took some pictures; bought some baskets.

An elderly man was hitch-hiking a few miles from any town. Since it was so hot and isolated, we picked him up, used a map to determine where he was going, and drove him to his home. We weren’t going his way, but then we didn’t know or care which way we were going, so what difference did it make?

The hotel concierge told us to be sure and visit Barumini, an ancient village called Auraghe su Nuraghi that dates from maybe 4000 BC. It appeared to be a massive fortress formed of several towers connected by galleries, and courtyards. Many passageways were still usable, some stairs led underground.

In Cagliari we spent the night in the Hotel Mediterraneo, something we have done only 23 times in our almost 1,000 nights in Europe. We fixed our dinner in the RV in the hotel parking lot, with a beautiful view of the harbor and the sea.