Megan and Chris in Sardinia (Sardegna) Italy
April 2006

Traveling to Sardinia on the wing of an Easy Jet. These are the Swiss Alps. Easy Jet is one of the many low-cost carriers providing cheap travel around Europe and beyond. We can't complain about the ticket prices, but one policy we just can't get our heads around is the lack of assigned seating. Instead of assigned seats, passengers are assigned to four boarding groups based on their order of check-in, with those checking in earliest getting to board (and hence pick seats) first. This creates stress, chaos, and the occasional fistfight between passengers. We can't figure out exactly how this saves the airlines money. Perhaps watching this animalistic mad scramble is a job perk for the EasyJet crew, who are generally less well paid than counterparts on major airlines. While on board, nothing is free. You pay for your cheap ticket by sitting through hours of attendants attempting to sell you drinks, overpriced sandwiches and snacks, fragrance selections you "can't buy on High Street for these prices", teddy bears, knick knacks, and all sorts of other useless SkyMall-style stuff. Bring your headphones!

La Necropoli Di Anghelu Ruju - Megan Posing in Tomb Door Megan: As I'm writing the history of this place, it strikes me as wierd that I'm smiling and posing in the door of a tomb like a giddy tourist gawking at the Empire State Building. This behavior would be reprehensible in a modern cemetary. But perhaps the age of this tomb removes the humanity and resigns a sacred sight to historical marvel. And perhaps that this amazing place has survived over 5000 years warrants a photographic reminder of this glimpse of human ancenstry. Sardinia is home to over ten thousand years of human history. A very accessible overview of this history is provided by this Sardinia website: sarnow.com These pictures were taken at a Bronze Age burial site ("La Necropoli di Anghelu Reju"), with 36 ancient hand-carved tombs in the native stone geology. Over half the tombs have collapsed, due to nature and early mining operations on the site, leaving only entryways or piles of stone. But the rest are mostly intact, some a simple single-room structure, but others with mazes of rooms and stone columns hidden under the earth. The site was used continously from about 3,000 BC to 1,000 BC. At this time, the people who abandoned the site, seeming to know they were never going to return, carefully sealed these ancient tombs with rocks (photo below). Because of this, the tombs, which were first discovered around the turn of the 20th century, remained largely intact. When the tombs were first excavated in the early 1900's, many visiting amatuer European archeologists took their findings. In another excavation a few years later, discoveries were split: half were sold to the British Museum, the other half sold at auction via Christie's. In subsequent excavations, artifacts have been kept by Sardinia, housed at the museums in the cities of Sassari and Cagliari. Replicas of these are on display at the nearby Sell & Mosca winery museum, who owned the Algheru Ruju property before donating it to the city. Frustrating for us, the winery museum wasn't open during our visit.

La Necropoli Di Anghelu Ruju - Tomb Entrance with Stone Door (front) and Still Complete Tombs and Door (back) The tombs were all hand-carved from the stone. Looking at the giant spaces, doors, and surprisingly straight ceilings, it was hard to imagine how many arduous hours of labor went into a single tomb. Some tombs have architectural flourishes - such as false doorways, pillars, stairs columns and bull motifs. The bull's head is a recurring motif, as the bull was a sacred animal for the people of this period. Not much is known about the people who built or used the tombs. They are known to be fisherpeople, based on remnants of mollusks found in the caves. Between one and thirty people were buried in each. Beyond the necroplis: Sardinia's most architecturally prolific inhabitants built structures called Nuraghi, from 3500 BC to 1500 BC, which were in use until the Roman conquest of Sardinia in the 2nd Century BC . Over 8,000 of their sturdy stone structures — mostly mysterious round castle-like houses — still dot the scenery around the island. For photos and more information, check out Wikipedia: Nuraghe.

Fertilia - One of many delicious Italian meals (a bit simpler than most). After visiting the Anghelu Ruiu, we tried to visit the museum at local winery Sell & Mosca, but learned the hard lesson that everything (even winery museums) is closed from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. for lunch + nap. We decided to get lunch, find an ATM, and tour the coast north of Alghero instead. We arrived in the town of Fertilia to find an ATM and a fabulous pizza restaurant, not to mention a beautiful bench on which to enjoy our lunch. Fertilia was founded by Mussolini in the 30's as the centre of his agricultural reclamation area in the Nurra. The town itself is quiet and pleasant, but the buildings -- all uniform, utilitarian, and block concrete - lack character and that Spanish/Arabic/Italian flavor of the other towns. The city has definitely seen better days. While the main street is pretty and appears vibrant, it appears much of the housing on the uniform streets has been abandoned for more prosperous parts of Sardinia.

That road down below is the one we'd be following for the rest of the afternoon.

Our second night, after our first day cycling, was spent in Bosa. The town had seen better days (around 700 years ago) but had some charms: its location on the coast was amazingly beautiful.

It rained on our second day of cycling. But that kept the temperature down and we ended up having a great day.

Our third night we were in Santulussurgio. This town turned out to be a real surprise. It was upscale, yet ancient. Nestled in the mountains.

The next morning we noticed that our ancient mountain town was next to an ancient volcano.

The purplish-brown flowers are artichokes!

Our cycling guide made a point of mentioning the fabulous quartz beach we'd find. We were prepared to be underwhelmed (what beach sand doesn't have quartz?!) but it was gorgeous. It was like the entire beach had been rolled through a rock tumbler for a few million years. (OK, what beach hasn't been rolled through a rock tumbler for a few million years? But look at it!)

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Tharros. This peninsula was occupied by the Sardinian paleolithic Nuraghi people, then Phoenicians, then Romans, then Medieval Spanish forces in the Middle Ages. Each civilization left its monuments.

After our cycling trip we moved on to the east coast of Sardinia for kayaking and hiking. It was nice to sleep in one place for more than one night (a fantastic family-run hotel in Cala Gananone).