Today was a big day of touring the Costa del Sud, or southern coast of Sardinia. Our very first stop was a bookstore in Pula where we bought the best maps we could find. With maps in tow, we started our tour with a visit to the neighboring archeological zone of Pula in a place called Nora. Nora was once the seat of the Roman government on Sardinia but was populated much before that - if you can even fathom what it means to be inhabited during the 11th century BC. There were a few interesting ruins to see, which included the standard Roman amphitheater, thermal baths, residential areas, and roadways. What we didn't get to see is probably much more interesting - much of the original city is underwater.
From there, we traveled down the coast to the "town" of Chia where we checked out our first beaches of the day and climbed up to a tower for panoramic views. These were the first beaches we'd seen that actually had waves. The bad news is that it was a little rainy this morning and cloudy for most of the day, which meant that we didn't get to see several beaches in all their glory. The good news was that the autofocus started to work again (maybe it needed a few days off? though Mike claime he fixed it), and that from the tower we saw a body of water in the distance inhabited by a flock of flamingoes.
It was clear what our next destination was. We drove right over to what seems to be a bird sanctuary to check out the flamingoes. The roads are set up so we couldn't get too close, but with our telephoto lens, we got some pretty descent shots. The birds were fun to watch as they bourreed (Mike prefers to describe it as moon-walking), chatted with each other, searched for food and flapped their wings. It was incredible to see them out in the wild.
We drove further along the coast stopping very frequenty for pictures, and made a stop at the Su Giudeu beach which was a treasure-trove of sea-glass. As we were checking out the beach the sun finally started to come out so we rushed back to the car to get to the beach we saw in the distance, which looked incredible. At the beach across from the Island of Teurredda in Teulada we went swimming for the first time in Sardinia. The water was perfect and the sand was almost completely white. We swam for a while and watched the fish, especially those who followed us as we were swimming. Aware that there were other mini-paradises to see, we pulled ourselves away and got back in the car. At one point we drove along a dirt road to get a view of the coast area, and then stopped again at the Piscinni beach where we hiked down from the road. The beach here wasn't too exciting so we walked around towards the tower on the point, and here we found a little beach that was much more exciting, and had some small cave areas to explore. Back in the car we made one more stop at a little beach that our book doesn't mention - but the water was perfect so I took a quick dip. It was 5 PM in October and I was outdoors swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. It can't get any better than this!
From here we got back on the main road and drove to get to our B&B before dark - tonight we're staying in a room that a family has behind their house, which is located on a vineyard in what feels like the middle of nowhere. The family here makes their own wine, olive oil, and has an assortment of other things growing, including a few almond trees - I am not sure I've ever seen one before. I think this might be the quietest place we stay during our whole trip, and I'm looking forward for a night without sirens, motorinos, and garbage trucks.
We settled in and then got back in the car to find somewhere to eat dinner. We didn't really eat lunch because we were removed from civilization for the entire day, so we were hungry. We drove about 10 minutes to the main city on the west coast, Iglesias, which was primarily a mining town until the 1970's. Clearly, things are different in Iglesias than other cities we've visited. We walked through the entire historical district but could not find one restaurant. Finally, after about an hour of walking around, we found one restaurant at the outskirts of the downtown. I think its the first place we sat down without even looking at the menu first - it didn't matter what they served or how much it cost. Luckily, it was reasonable and tasty (a great combo), and we were very satisfied. But then, we realized we hadn't seen any gelaterias during our restaurant search. We did one more lap through the downtown, which was completely dead (at 9:45 PM!) and did not see a single place to get gelato. I didn't realize that was allowed to happen...we hope for better luck tomorrow.
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