Sardinia, Italy

Buon giorno!

Yesterday was a sea day as we sailed across the Mediterranean towards Italy.  We spent the day taking part in several ship activities.

Today was a beautiful day to enjoy the island of Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and just off the coast of Italy. It’s about the size of Georgia and Florida combined. The port town of Alghero is where the ship anchored and we were tendered in on small boats to the shore. Alghero is known as “Little Barcelona” as the language and customs come from eastern Spain. Most locals speak both the Catalan and Italian languages.

The waterfront in Alghero

We took one of the ship’s tours today. We started by walking the old cobblestone streets through the narrow walkways into the old, medieval part of the city. We entered the Church of the San Francesco, which is a 14th century Romanesque church. It took 200 years to build. We chuckled at the priests inside uploading photos from a digital camera onto their laptop computer.

Church of San Francesco entrance

Clergy uploading their photos

Next we rode a bus to the Sella and Mosca Winery, one of Italy’s premium wine estates. After an informative tour of the winery, we purchased some wine from their estate-grown Vermentino and Cannonau grapes, which will be good for sampling on the balcony as we sail away this evening.

1500 acres of grape vines

Wine barrels

Back on the bus we drove to Cape Caccia that overlooks a coral bay and rocky cliffs. Red coral is harvested from this bay and jewelry made from it is one of the main tourist souveniers. We were satisfied with just a photo.

The coral bay where red coral is 'fished'

Sampling of the red coral jewelry

On the way back to the port, we stopped by Nuraghe Palmavera, which has copper-age stone towers erected by the Nuraghi culture around 1500 to 500 BC. About 7,000 stone towers dot the hillsides of Sardinia; the one we stopped by is one of the largest sites. A typical tower had stone benches inside, stalls for animals, and frequently an altar at the entrance. There were often chambers on two levels, with a winding staircase inside.

Nuraghe Palmavera

Then it was back to the city and the waterfront where we joined our Colorado neighbors, Bob and Tissy at a waterfront café for a little glass of local wine and some good people watching.

Bob, Tissy, and Terry

Today was a nice introduction to Italy.  Tomorrow we arrive in Rome!