t Pristine landscape and turquoise waters along the Costa Smeralda
t Pristine landscape and turquoise waters along the Costa Smeralda
Experience Sardinia
In his travelogue Sea and Sardinia, D H Lawrence wrote that Sardinia was “left outside of time and history”. Indeed, the march of time has been slow here, and traditions from ancient Europe have survived – the legacy of invasion by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Byzantines, Spaniards and Savoyards. These traditions are displayed in Sardinia’s many festivals – some soberly Christian, others with pagan roots. Several different dialects and languages are spoken in Sardinia. Catalan can be heard in Alghero, and on the island of San Pietro there is a Ligurian dialect. In the south, the traditional influences are Spanish, while conservative native strains of people and language survive in the Gennargentu mountains. Peopled by shepherds in isolated communities, this region is so impenetrable that invaders have never bothered it.
Of particular interest are the prehistoric nuraghic castles, villages, temples and tombs dotted around the countryside – most notably around Barumini, north of Cagliari, and in the Valle dei Nuraghi, south of Sassari. The nuraghi were built by a people whose origins constitute one of the Mediterranean’s great mysteries.
Sassari, Oristano, Alghero and Olbia are all centres of areas marked by their individuality. Some remarkable Pisan-Romanesque churches are located around Sassari and here, too, dialects reveal close links with the languages of Tuscany. Olbia is a boom town made rich by tourism and the proximity of the jet-setting Costa Smeralda. Sober Nuoro with its province in the shadow of the Gennargentu mountains, by contrast, offers dramatic scenery and a rich literary heritage.