While we were waiting for our new Flexofold folding
propeller to come from Denmark, we decided to hire a car and do a bit of a road
trip around Sardinia. One of our main
objectives was to see up close and find out more about the Bronze Age Nuraghe
towers, which dot the Sardinia countryside.
So off we went in search of Nuraghe.
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| Bob in front of a nuraghe tower |
Not much is known about the Nuragic civilization as no
written records have been found. This
culture lasted from the 18th Century BC until the Romans settled the
island around 200BC. Scholars have
pieced together some idea of the Nuragic culture through various artefacts,
such as bronze figurines and the subsequent writings of the Romans and
Phoenicians. Their belief system seems
to be centred on fertility with the male symbol of the Bull-Sun and the female symbol
of Water-Moon. They mined copper, tin
and lead and built furnaces to produce alloys such as bronze which they traded
throughout the Mediterranean becoming the main metal producers of Europe at the
time.
But by far the most enduring feature of the Nuragic culture
are their circular megalithic edifices of Nuraghe towers. More than 7000 have been found on the island. (Sardinia is only 24,000 square kilometres
which is about one-third the size of Tasmania or about the size of the state of
Vermont. So that is a lot of nuraghe per
square kilometre.) There is some debate
about the purpose of these round towers (military strongholds, meeting halls,
religious temples astronomical observatories, furnaces, or tombs) but most
scholars now agree that they were primarily fortified homes with barns and
grain stores.
We picked up our 4 door Smart car at the airport and headed
north. Along the coastal strip between
Oristano and Bosa we came upon our first Nuraghe, the Turre de su Putu, on a
small headland jutting out from a small village.
Next stop was Bosa. Last
October we had intended to winter Songster
at the marina in Bosa but for various reasons of time, weather and facilities,
we decided to keep the boat in Cagliari for the winter.
When we arrived at Bosa we were kicking ourselves for not going with
plan A as Bosa is an absolutely delightful town. It is the only major town in Sardinia that
lies along a river, and the River Temo is very pretty indeed.
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| Bosa marina - so clean and tidy with great views of the town and castle - sigh..... |
We had a very nice lunch in one of the many high quality
restorantes then set out to explore the town.
Overlooking the town is the 12th Century Malaspina
Castle. We wound our way up steps and
backstreets to the castle. The views
overlooking the town, river and sea were stunning.
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| The river Temo |
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| Bosa town |
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| Whimsical flowerpots in Bosa |
We next drove along the coast from Bosa to Alghero. This road is renowned for its wonderful views
and it did not disappoint.
We arrived in Alghero in the evening and stayed at the lovely
B&B we stayed at in November when we left Sardinia to return to
Australia. We ended up having an early
night and leaving the exploration of the town for the morning. One of the things we wanted to check out was
the Cannabis vending machines we saw when we were here in November. We couldn’t figure out how they existed when
marijuana is technically illegal in Italy.
We found the shop and found out that they sell Cannabis lite which
contains only 0.2 -0.6% THC, about one-tenth of the potency of ‘normal’
marijuana. So they can sell cannabis
lite products because they will not give anyone much of a buzz.
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| The shop front to the vending machines |
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| 5 grams of 'lite' for 7 euros |
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| Or for the munchies |
We left Alghero to travel inland to the Santa Cristina
Nuraghe village near the town of Paulilatino. This Bronze age Nuraghe village contains a
sacred well that is in such good condition that it looks like it was built a
few years ago. An isosceles trapezoidal
staircase goes down to a well which still holds water. Above the well is a conical tower (tholos)
which every 18 years, one month and two days, the full moon shines directly
through the aperture into the well. At every spring and autumn equinox the sun shines directly down the stairwell into
the well water. The construction and
preserved state of this well was truly impressive.
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| The top of the stairway to the well |
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| Looking up the stair case from the well |
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| The conical tholos over the well - Eileen looking down and Bob looking up |
Further along were
some moss covered nuraghe and grain storage structures. The site of this nurgahe village was still
inhabited into the middle ages. The area
had a wonderful mystical feel about it.
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| Nuraghe |
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| Grain storage barn |
The ticket to the Nuraghe village included entrance to the
ethnographic museum in the town about 5 km away. This was housed in a lovely old building, the
Atzori mansion. The three story museum
was filled with farming implements, household crockery and textiles and most
fascinating, examples of special Sardinian bread weaving done for special
occasions such as weddings and Easter.
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| Beautiful woven bread |
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| The church bell tower from the museum terrace |
We decided we liked Bosa so much we would spend our second
night at a B&B there. We drove back
from Paulilatino via Saint Lussurgiu.
This town is supposed to be located on the rim of an old volcano. I could not see this geological feature
myself but the drive through the country side was very pretty.
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| View near Saint Lussurgiu |
Back in Bosa we settled into our very nice B&B in an old
mansion right off the main piazza. After
a great meal and a walk along the river we contentedly went to bed.
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| Bosa from the Saint Lussurgiu road |
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| Bosa at night along the river |
The next day we headed towards Barumini, the site of one of
the best preserved nuraghes. This place
was recommended to Bob by his dentist (crowns are half price here in Sardinia
so Bob is getting some repair work done on his teeth.). The dentist also said the town was renowned
for its good restaurants. After a long
drive we arrived at the Su Nuraxi nuraghe.
The admission to the site was quite expensive and entry was only by guided
tour. We would have had to wait a half
hour for the next tour so we contented ourselves with reading the signage and
taking a few snaps through the fence.
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| The Su Nuraxi nuraghe |
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| Aerial view of the Su Nuraxi nuraghe |
On to the town for lunch.
Barumini is a sleepy town on a Friday at lunchtime. Actually that is being kind. The town seemed more like it was comatose on
terminal life support. We finally found
a restaurant that was open. We were the
only customers and had a fairly ordinary meal but the location and staff were
very nice. By now we were ready to head
back to Cagliari and Songster.
We approached Cagliari from the east along its beaches and
marshland and were treated to flocks of flamingos feeding. This was a real treat as for days we have
been watching these beautiful birds fly overhead in V formation. It was a great way to end our road trip.
