INSPIRATION

I wake up early and as soon as I put my head out of the building I see the limestone ‘Tacchi’ behind Tertenia, a real treat. Today for the first time it’s very warm, I feel hot with the jacket I have been using for months now. The temperature is definitely spring (more than summer in northern Europe) and I start off calmly. I cycle on a short stretch of the new 125 motorway, and take a tunnel that unfortunately I cannot avoid. At the exit, I stop to turn off the lights and a car stops beside me. A person comes out “Hi Sebastiano, you don’t know me but I follow you on Facebook!”. He advises me to turn to the next right and get to Cardedu via the coast, to see the beach that has recently been canceled by a storm, “I’ll see you there!” he adds.

I then cycle over beautiful hills and after a nice climb I arrive at a valley surrounded by rocky mountains. Fortunately, I don’t have to climb over them, but the road continues along a valley and flows into a plain planted with vineyards, which arrives right on the coast. I am near in Museddu, and once I get to the blocked road I meet Giuliano (the one from before). I ask a worker to let me pass the barriers to see the coast, and actually nothing is left of the beach. The last sea storms have even taken away the road and some houses, devastating everything. I stop to talk to someone who is shoveling away sand. Franco is the owner of a restaurant right here, which fortunately was not physically damaged but will have to be closed for a while.

I say goodbye to Giuliano and continue to Cardedu. There is no one waiting for me so I take this opportunity to do everything in relax, ride around the village by bike, admire some murals, and enter the church of San Paolo because I read there is a Via Crucis by Maria Lai. With astonishment, instead, I find another Via Crucis, by Pinuccio Sciola. Who knows what the change is due, in any case a respectable one!

I have lunch with yesterday’s leftovers in the square behind the church, on the edge of a fountain. And then I decide to call a contact for a a bnb. It is Cristian from the bnb Il Giglio, in which I settle in the afternoon. I find out that his wife Sabrina is a councilor in town but she didn’t know anything about the project. After a nap, I take the opportunity to work on the blog all evening.

After dinner I can chat a little with Cristian and Sabrina. They tell me some facts about Cardedu. The Municipality is relatively new, born in 1984, but the urban settlement was born in the 50s after many inhabitants who left Gairo after the flood moved to the coast. For this reason all the houses here are quite recent. Unfortunately, today I have chosen to recover and do some work and I had to give up visiting some archaeological sites that contain domus de janas and nuraghi. It will be for the next time, a good excuse to come back!

SOUND FRAGMENTS

SHORT SARDINIAN STORIES

The next morning I’m with Cristian at the bar having breakfast. He kindly decided to have me as their guest and not let me pay for the overnight stay! As we talk about my project, a guy sitting at the next table listens in silence and with a serious expression. Then Cristian greets him and explains what I’m doing. The guy listens, then silently goes to the counter and without saying anything pays for our breakfast. Cristian leaves and I stay a while at the bar. The guy approaches me and asks me for more details about the project. Then he asks me “where will you stay in Jerzu?” I reply that I don’t know yet. Before leaving he puts some money in my hand and says “this is a little help for your stay in Jerzu, you are my guest”. Raffaele is from Jerzu but lives in Cardedu.

PS the next day I send a message to Raffaele from Jerzu “thank you very much for your contribution” and his answer is “I admire people like you. Externally I’m a strong person but I’m very emotional. Having the chance, I would help the whole world. “