Su Nuraxi to escape from old-town Sassari!

Friday, May 22, 2015

Hello from the north of Sardinia!

I do apologize for not blogging yesterday, but there does come into each blogger’s life a time when they need to take a break.  That was yesterday.  So…

We left the wonderful Villa Primavera about 8:30 a.m. yesterday, saying goodbye to our new friend (and landlady) Tina.  We were definitely sorry to leave, and already thinking about when we can return.  One thing that we have realized is that Sardinia is a very large island – bigger than at least I had expected.  As a result, we are not able to see nearly the number of specific “sites” that I had originally planned.  That being the case, as R puts it, we can probably cover about 2 or 3 per day at the most.  Fair enough.  After looking at the map and information we have, we decided that Su Nuraxi would be the first place to head. 

Main tower complex

Interior of a nuraghic house; see grinding stone in center

Entrance to meeting room

It is inland -- about midway up the island – and has one main tower with four towers built around it.  It was definitely built as a fortification – something that would definitely deter people from attacking.  Over the span of hundreds of years, small nuraghic houses were built around the outside.  The nuraghe did like circles, I have to admit.  The entire site is really fascinating.  We arrived just a few minutes before 11 a.m. and were able to join the 11 a.m. tour.  (This, like Nora, is guided-tour only, and while we would definitely rather ramble ourselves, it is SO nice to know the Sardinians are taking care of their treasures!) 

The tour was conducted by a very knowledgeable guide, who was fluent in Italian and English, and gave the tour bi-lingually, which was interesting.  (He’d talk REALLY fast and gesture a lot in Italian, and go on and on and on – then do his thing in English – MUCH less dramatic, for sure!) 

Me in meeting room sitting on bench

From the top, overlooking "houses"

We were able to go in and visit a meeting “room” with benches and niches on the walls, and then finally go up to the top of the main tower and actually use the nuragic passage to get down to ground level inside!  It was amazing – and a bit claustrophic, as only one person (barely) fit in the interior passage – no going up and down at the same time.  Actually being inside the central nuraghe was truly an experience.  We were able to enter the other towers from the ground level.  The nuraghe are all built by corbelling the huge rocks into place; that is, each layer going up is successively smaller than the one below, ending in a rounded shape at the top, which was closed to the sky (in this case, though, the main tower was open to the sky; the outer towers were not).  All in all, a truly wonderful experience.  And, as R says, how can we have read so much history and until I started researching Sardinia, we hadn’t known anything about the nuraghe!

Once our tour was over, we went across the street to a restaurant (obviously prepared for bus loads, as LOTS of long tables!) for lunch.  R had their ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach, in a tomato sauce, and I had their bresaola salad with a few shreds of parmesan…suffice to say that R “won” that round!  Then, back on the road again, heading to Sassari.

View of surrounding countryside from the top

Me inside one of the towers

Detail of one stone wall with niches

Got to Sassari about 4, and we were scheduled to meet our host at 4:30 p.m. at Piazza Universita, right smack in the middle of the old part of town.  Robert managed to find us to the right spot, and we were actually early, about 4:05.  And that’s when the fun began…our host pulled up in his vehicle, and we managed to load all our “stuff.” 

Doorway into another tower

R inside another tower

Looking up from the ground floor!

As I got into the very tiny backseat, with R’s carry-on and my own, the plastic back decking came down on me, making for a very uncomfortable drive.  Up and through some very narrow old streets, until we pulled up in front of a very, very old building.  Graffiti everywhere, but I kept thinking “we’re not there yet.”  And then we were there.  UGH, was definitely my first impression. 

Su Nuraxi view from the road

R's delicious cheese-filled ravioli

My "so-so" bresaola salad; need GREENS!

The ground floor was absolutely crumbling – holes in the concrete; very dirty and ill-lit.  Up we schlepped to the first floor (noticing one of the two doors on the landing being actually CHAINED shut with a padlock…) to the second floor.  This one had planks in the hallway…hmmm…and into our “B&B”.  Our room was okay.  [Margaret is being generous. – R]  Spacious, and it looked clean and had a nice new bathroom.  Lighting was okay.  We were certainly not impressed.  Put things down, and went over a map with the owner, so that he could show us the banking and restaurant areas.  As the weather had turned VERY cold and blustery (in the low 60’s, if that, threatening rain, and blowing a gale) we added layers of clothes and set out to find a bank.  As I tried to lock our bedroom door, the physical KNOB came off in my hand!  Now what do we do?  Nobody around to ask.  Hmm…Did NOT find a bank on the first try, but proceeded up the street to three successive piazza (squares).  Finally found a bank that look safe enough to enter, but other than some take-away pizza places, found no restaurants at all.  The thing that is amazing is that there are some really high-end retail shops – Zara, and Swarovski crystal around.  Got $$ and then tried to find a real restaurant where one could go inside and eat real food!  What a concept!  And NO luck!  We looked up streets and down alleys and after about 45 minutes, finally found one place that might or might not open at 8 p.m. that night.  Hmm…

I have found that over the years, in each really long trip, there are the occasional hiccups that occur along the way.  Staying in old town Sassari was one of those things.  As we finally headed back to the B&B, and looked at the building approaching it, it was, truly appalling.  Besides the graffiti, the two windows on the ground floor had some sort of blinds hanging there – barely, all broken and shredded – and that was it.  We were OUT of there.

Back up to the flat, re-packed in minutes, and down to the street.  A group of teens causing a ruckus on the street in front, and again, I was more than a little apprehensive, however, no problems.  We did leave the payment along with a note and the keys.  Fortunately, although we had taken the cook’s tour on our way there in the car, it was only three short blocks and one longer block to the piazza and into our car.  Headed to the best hotel in town, the Carlo Felice, who had room for the night!  And all for the price of 69E (about $75) a night!  We’re SAVED! 

So…R is ready to go downstairs for breakfast, and wants to get on the road, so I will close now and update tonight – from back in Villa del Piero and Tina’s lovely apartment once again!

Much love,

m

xxx

Editor’s note:  I realized that I hadn’t written about Wednesday night’s wonderful dinner, so will put both dinners together tonight!  Sorry for the confusion!

Second Editor's note:  The pictures are taking FOREVER to download, so will put the rest in tonight!

m xxx