I’ve started having my ‘queen’ moments again, here in Sardinia. I’m getting really gracious, as I smile and wave benignly. Bertie the Bimobil is an interesting vehicle anywhere and the Sardinians seem to find it particularly fascinating, craning their necks and staring at us, waving or taking u-turns, just to take another look. Sometimes, one has to resist the urge to chivvy them onwards as they slow down in front of us on the road. The curiosity extended to the police who stopped us en route to Cagliari, on the pretence of checking my driving licence. I think they just wanted to have a good old stare at the Bimi…..
We’d arrived in Sardinia to visit Sofia and her partner Carlo, after taking the ferry from Genoa.
That had been an adventure in itself, driving through rain of almost biblical proportions to arrive at the chaotic port where there was nowhere to park and no sign of the ticket office. Funny that, one minute it’s signposted, the next minute it disappears……..finally I found a teeny, tiny sign saying ‘ticket office’ in teeny,tiny writing….well it actually said ‘biglietteria’ but let’s not complicate things…
Surrounded by Swiss in or on almost every car, campervan and motorbike we eventually boarded the ferry. ‘What’s going on here?’ we thought, ‘is it the chocolate makers convention or a gathering of Swiss gnomes?’* We made our way to our armchairs for the overnight crossing, where I became aware of a puffing noise and thinking someone was having an asthma attack, turned to see what was going on. In one corner, an elderly couple were solemnly pumping up an air bed to sleep in one corner; they had handily placed themselves next to the shelving and all they needed was a little light reading matter and a bedside light to make themselves totally at home….They were right though, since as the night progressed, I too found myself sleeping on the floor, the most comfortable place to be.
Docking at Olbia, I watched two very small men pulling on two very small ropes to anchor our ferry. ‘Surely they have bigger ropes than that?! ‘ I wished and hoped. Answer, yes they did but it did look comical as they grappled with a multi tonne ferry……
Onwards to Cagliari from Olbia, after yet again struggling with non existent or misleading signage to find the right road. We’d been to Cagliari before. It’s an attractive town, built on a number of hills, so good exercise for the unfit, a bit like Devon, (well not really! They don’t have much in common, hills, sea, fish….)
When I lived in Italy in the 70s, Sardinia was still bandit country where rich people were kidnapped and held for ransom on a regular basis. The bandits have disappeared but the impenetrable mountains remain with their thickly wooded slopes. It’s an interesting and beautiful place with wild, densely forested, mountainous valleys and beautiful empty beaches, quite a mix. I think it’s fair to say one doesn’t come here for the culture but for the scenery.
Although my Italian is good, the Sardinian version of Italian is a weird beast full of ‘u’s at the end of words and just strange words, perhaps it reflects the wide variety of races who have laid claim to the island from Phoenicians to Carthaginians to Pisans to Spanish.
We spent several happy days with Sofia and Carlo, exploring the island, including the unfortunately named seaside village of Buggerru, eating fantastic food and revelling in the glorious weather. Carlo kindly peeled many pomegranates for us, which grow wild on his farm and we told him how pomegranate juice is So Good for you. He looked mystified.
We helped see off the attentions of a roguish little dog we nicknamed ‘Pirate’ with his jaunty red scarf tied raffishly around his neck and a gleam in his eye. He was rather keen on Lily, Sofia’s Breton Spaniel who was on heat. Pirate took to hanging around the apartment front door in Cagliari, rather like a starcrossed lover…….. no he wasn’t, he was just a randy little dog. Grrr! Be off with you!
Then off we set, laden with pomegranates while Sofia and Carlo prepared to set off for Norfolk after a brief detour to Milan. We decided to explore the east coast, of which more at another time.
* in case you are wondering, it was Swiss half term!