‘We Sardinians love sardines!’

Cagliari, Sardinia, April 26 — I’m back in Italy! [At least I was, 4 days ago.] Repeat after me: Kall’-ya-ree, with the emphasis on the first syllable. D.H. Lawrence gave the name ‘the white Jerusalem’ to this city that overlooks the Gulf of Angels.

Sardinia — which is closer to Africa than it is to the Italian mainland — is one of the world’s 5 ‘blue zones’: It has the highest percentage of people in the world who are over 100 years old. The Blue Zone winners are: Sardinia, a religious order in California, Greece, Costa Rica and Okinawa. Our guide, Vanessa, credits the food, lifestyle, and their red wine — ‘but only one glass a day, it’s 17% alcohol!’ The most famous Sardinian dish, she says, is roasted piglet. And they love sardines, she assured us. We started our bus + walking tour in the middle of the city...

While now they are all taught Italian in school, the Sardinians’ native language is Sardo, a mashup of Latin, Arabic, Catalan and French. They are proud that Sardo is a language — not a dialect— and has its own grammar rules. Sardo speakers only began using Italian in everyday life when radio and TV arrived, but they proudly keep their native tongue alive.

Today the population of the greater Cagliari area is about 500,000. The population of the entire island is 1.5 million people... and 3 million sheep. The island has its own laws, which require a large administration to carry out; besides bureaucracy, the other main occupation is agriculture and animal husbandry of goats and the aforementioned sheep.

In the 1950s, a 15th-century BC, Bronze Age fortress was discovered at Barumini, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some of our Vikings went to visit it.

As near as I can figure: The Phoenicians occupied the island from the 9th to the 6th century BC. The Carthaginians came next, 6th-3rd century BC. After them, the Romans, until 500 AD. Add Vandals, Goths and Byzantines to taste. The ever-present Moors (aka Saracens) arrived in the early 700s and stayed 400 years. The Republic of Pisa kicked out the Moors in the 11th century and, in the 13th century, built the foundations of the city that remain today. The Aragonese (Spanish) marched in in 1326 and stayed for 400 years, followed by the French House of Savoy. ‘Italy’ finally got into the mix, but remember, the ‘Boot’ and its islands were a crazy quilt of separate kingdoms and duchies until Garibaldi in 1861.

An amphitheatre from the 2nd century AD Roman period remains, though we didn’t see it.

During WWII, 80% of Cagliari’s housing was destroyed by American and British bombs, and the city decided to build new housing from scratch and not rebuild or restore the original buildings. More’s the pity, though there are still several extant old churches and some examples of Art Nouveau buildings. This photo shows where bombed-out buildings were removed — replaced by a parking lot.

Note the original city walls at the left, below... down along the water, almost dead center, is the white Viking Sun.

First bus stop: The basilica of Santuario di Bonario was started by the Pisans in the 14th century (the simpler part on the far left) and added to in the 19th century.

Sardinia accounts for 1/4 of Italy’s coastline and has many popular beaches and beach resorts. In fact one beach business is run by the brother of a Facebook friend of mine. Our bus ride past one of the beaches took us to the top of Monte Urpinu (Sardinian for ‘fox’) — one of Cagliari’s 7 hills — for a view of the Sella del Diavolo (‘Devil’s Settle’) seen atop the rocky hill below... then down to Parco Naturale Molentargius Saline.

The salt industry closed down in the 1970s, and now the salt pans (above) are home to pale pink flamingos who feed on tiny shrimp that give them their color. Last year, 25,000 flamingos were born here.

We ditched the bus for an hour-long walk around the old Castello section of the city, where the nobles used to live. En route to the next visit...

... to the 13th-century Cathedral of Santa Maria.

Look who’s guarding the entrance to the crypt under the main sanctuary. This fellow wasn’t explained but appears to be a lion hugging a dragon, though neither one of them seems happy about it.

The crypt... I’ve been in a few crypts in my travels but never one this fancy. The angel at the top of this post was one of a dozen or more on the walls here.