October 7, 2010: Coast to Coast

Today we started out on the Sinis Peninsula just west of Cabras, where we spent the night. There are a couple of sites here, and the first thing we did was visit the town of San Salvatore. This place is so tiny - we missed the sign on the road to get to the town which probably has about 75 houses. Except for about 10 days a year this place is pretty much deserted - people have little homes here to host the pilgrims that come into town for the Feast of San Salvatore that takes place in August. The only highlight for us was learning that this place was used as the set for a spagetti western in the 1960's.

From here we traveled towards the southern tip of the peninsula to see Tharros - a historinc site that was populated first by the Nuraghe, then over the years by other civilizations until the Romans got a hold of the land and built their city (seems like the Roman city planners might have had a short checklist they were working from - temple, check. thermal baths, check. residential neighborhoods, check. paved roads, check....etc.). There weren't much left of the ruins to see, but it was a cool site to see, since it was on a peninsula and there were good views from all sides. Adjacent to the site was tower that we climbed up to and were rewarded with great views of the Spiaggia di San Giovanni di Sinis.

We drove around the west coast of the peninsula to visit the "famous" white-sand beaches (they have problems of too many people stealing the sand, so there are signs all over the place that say, "Friends, don't take me away!"). After driving on unsigned dirt roads for about 45 minutes (we didn't cover much ground - this peninsula is really not that big) we reached the Is Arrutas. The sand (actually, little round pebbles and shells) is really amazing - it looks really white from a distance but actually has little bits of color from shells, sea-glass, and rocks. We explored some of the rocks for a while and swam in the slightly chilly water before getting back in the car to check out one more spot on the peninsula. In the north area of the peninsula, there is a large lagoon (Stagno Sale Porcus) - where flamingoes flock in the winter. Unfortunately its not really winter yet, so we didn't get to see any more flamingoes.

Our next stop was the major city of Oristano. We arrived during the middle of the day which meant that almost everything was closed, but luckily we found a few restaurants open and we had our first lunch in three days (we've really be in the middle of nowhere lately, and there are just no places to stop for lunch!). Afterwards we walked around and checked out the historical part of the city, which consisted first with a stop for gelato (it was 32 degrees Celsius today!). The center of town is pretty small, but had some interesting towers, cathedrals, and buildings to see.

With a long (2.5 hours) drive ahead of us, we got back in the car and began our trek to the east coast, to a city called Calagonone. We drove on the main highway for about 100 km to get to the major east coast (really still inland) city of Nuoro. Here the landscaped changed completely and we saw huge mountains in front of us. We got off the main highway and took some smaller roads to get to the mountain town of Dorgali (they had roads with red pavement!) and finally down the other side of the mountains, where we found Calagonone.

We'll be staying in this small but resorty town for three nights since this area has the most impressive beaches, caves, and gorges in Sardinia. Since we arrived around sunset, we just checked out the town, had dinner, and called it a day.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:

Mike - Amaretto, Amarena, e Cannoli (all at once! there was a serious miscommunication but Mike was thrilled with it)

Aviva - Liquirizia

To see our picture from today, click here.