When we left Cagliari we did not immediately head north to Alghero. Since we had some time and a car under us, we decided to spend a few hours visiting some interesting places south of the city, the town of Pula and the ancient Roman port ruins at Nora. We had coffee in Pula at a great little cafe sitting in the warm sun and then got a personalized tour of the ruins of the small Roman port city of Nora by the onsite archaeologist, Valeria. The small Roman theater (couldn’t have seated more than 200) may have been the highlight, but having the insight of our own archaeologist was a treat.
We then traveled north to Alghero on a very nice four lane highway through the city of Sassari and then down to the west coast of Sardegna at Alghero. We were both very taken with Alghero (accent on the “gher”). It is a quaint medieval port city and like most of the places we have visited, it has a history dating back too far to recount here. As with many of the port cities we have visited here in Italy, it suffered severe damage from Allied bombing during WW II. Most of it has been rebuilt, but does contain several monuments and plaques to people who perished during those events. It has an international airport just outside the city for those wishing to get here easily.
Walking along the sea wall that borders the “centro storico” (historic center) we met a man doing the same thing we were, strolling and taking pictures of the ever-changing evening sky. We struck up a conversation with Gianfranco and ended up getting a personal tour of the old city from a native.
We had thought of driving to the very exclusive northeast side of the island to Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo, but decided the four hours of driving it would take for the round trip just to spend too much for lunch and coffee would be better spent closer to Alghero.
Sardegna is famous for a unique style of ancient stone structures called nuraghi. They date from somewhere between 2,700 – 4,500 years old and vary in size and the amount of fortification, but all have conical tower and were the center of social and spiritual life for the people who spent their days there. Some of the larger ones are also surrounded by defensive walls, although there is little evidence of them being used to fend off attacks. Some 7,000 of these sites have been discovered with theories that there were up to 10,000 of them. They dot the island seemingly everywhere you go. Like all ancient dwellings, I feel a sense of wonder about the people who lived, played, worked and died in these places. The style of these stone structures is unique to Sardegna and the population is still a bit of a mystery, with little knowledge other than these strange structures and the few artifacts that have been discovered at the sites.
Next stop was the 3,600 – 6,000 year old Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju. Where again, because of the season, we were the only people there and were able to obtain a personal tour from the onsite custodian and archaeologist. Discovered by accident in 1903, it contained the remains and artifacts spanning over 2,000 years of use.
If we were to plan this trip again, we might have flown into one end of the island and out of the other. As it was we needed to drive back to Cagliari to catch our flight home. Rather than retracing our route through the middle of the island, we decided to take the road along the west coast of the island. We had the road nearly to ourselves and the wild scenic vistas were well worth the extra 30 minutes the route took.
Last week we stayed in Livorno and toured some of the hill cities of Tuscany by car and that will be the next post.
Although I view it all the time, I don’t comment much on this blog so I just want to take a moment to tell you how much I really enjoy it. I’ve been to a lot of places but your carefully detailed travels are taking me to places I will never see, without this blog.
Keep it up!
Hi Jim and Holly. Your photos are amazing. Wow what wonderful adventure of discovery you have been on!