Cagliari, Sardinia
Cagliari, Sardinia (Italy) Tuesday,
April 4, 2022
More changes. Due to
very high winds, port authorities have not allowed our ship to safely
land…therefore, we cruise on, add another sea day or two, and hope for a new
landing to take its place. This has been the story of this 6-month
journey. We’ve already changed from west
to east. We’ve already lost some
ports. This is continuing.
But, alas, we did get off the ship for two days in a row. Granted, neither of these stops were on even
the revised schedule. Pity the poor
people who have to arrange last-minute shore excursions for about 300 guests.
Our first day off the ship was here on the Italian island of
Sardinia. If you understand Italian, you will know that the “g” is silent in
the title of the city. From the first
glance, it was clear that we were in Europe.
Yes, there were still some palm trees, reminiscent of the latitude, but
the tropics were behind us and the layers upon layers of lived civilizations
became clear in the many places that are excavated and still being
excavated. Keep reading.
Cagliari is an ancient city, named and renamed according to the many peoples who inhabited this island that was important for its ability to control all sea traffic from the west. Just about any civilization we’ve studied in history classes is evidenced here, all the way back to the Phoenicians hundreds of years Before Christ. Each archeological layer shows the group who drove out the previous inhabitants.
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia. You’ll find it in your atlases. It has a mild climate year-round and is
famous for wines, cheese, and milk products.
The city still has scars from WWII (and as we gaze at them, we grieve
for Ukraine!) 70% of this city was destroyed.
Yet hope and freedom eventually triumph as they continue to rebuild and
sometimes leave the scars as reminders.
We took a bus tour to get the feel of Cagliari since we’ve
never been here before. Along the
seashore, pedestrian avenues had been created and our guide said, “Every Sunday
is a good day for us to have a walk on the seaside.” We already could see what a gathering area it
was for the locals.
Our bus took us to a higher overlook at 800m to view the city and coastline. There, we also found a statue of the dancing St. Francis, protector of animals, situated between two parks that contain mostly wild birds. Originally, the island was known for its wild fox—which have now been overhunted and are no longer to be found.
If you look behind the lushly blooming aloe vera, you will see remnants
of a 4th Century tower. The
arch you see is the entrance to an ancient castle and fortification. Inside was the National Archeological
Museum. Our tour guide hoped to shepherd
all 13 of us through the museum as a group.
Nope. Like herding frogs. We each were drawn to different artifacts or
placards to read. But finally we
gathered again as a group outside and began the walking descent along a narrow
street, past a cathedral, and down, down past shops and finally to our bus that
took us back to the ship.
Yhenew tigger artifact is exquisite
ReplyDelete