INSPIRATION

Today is a really short and flat route! It’s the Sunday before Easter and I don’t expect much in the village except for mass. I arrive and decide to climb the upper and oldest part of Posada.

I reach the top passing between stone lanes and narrow streets and I park my bike under a stone porch, right next to the church, where Caffè Italia is located. The owner looks at me and asks me if it is really me “the man who is doing the tour of Sardinia by bike”. I answer yes and he invites me to sit down and offers me a coffee. The day is very beautiful.

Soon after, the mass ends and many people pour into the bar, most of them armed with palms. I also recognize those who must be members of a choir, from how they are dressed. Too bad I didn’t sneak into the church. I thank the owner and take the bike back. But as I go down a few meters, outside a shop selling Sardinian products (100×100), the owner asks me the same question and invites me to sit down for another coffee. What a welcome!

After some talk where we find we have common acquaintances, I call Giusy, the contact for my hospitality, found by my friend Pietro di Orosei, who has now taken my trip to heart, and we meet also with her friend Francesco at Blu Day bar in the lower part of the town not far from the 125 eastern Sardinian road. Here too, the welcome is warm, with an aperitif and then a lunch of seafood spaghetti offered by Pino, the owner.

Immediately after lunch I settled in the Blu Day residence where I will stay. From the bedroom window I can enjoy the view of the whole Posada, which seems to be ‘resting’ on the hill, despite the origin of the name is uncertain: ‘pausata’ for a Roman port, as a resting place for ships, or the ‘pose’ of the river at its mouth.

After a nap, I get on my bike to go to Tiriarzu beach. We are at the extreme border of the Tepilora Park. I cross the bridge over the watercourse and arrive at an expanse of white sand, in contrast with the blue sea in front. There are few people and I lie behind a wooden fence to listen to the sound of the sea, and then the radio, where they broadcast my interview for Radio24/Sole24ore. From here you can also see the promontory with the Tower of San Giovanni.

I go back to the village on the beautiful bike path and head to the entrance of the Castello della Fava, of Judicial age, which unfortunately is closing … why didn’t I go there earlier ?? So I go back to wonder a bit around the streets in the old town and at some point I am also forced to take staircases with the bicycle.

Shortly after I receive two calls and I am joined first by Francesco, a video maker who did some video footage of my appearance in Santa Lucia, and then Maria Luisa who hosted me in Siniscola, with her son Giovanni, and with a person I hadn’t seen for twenty years, Franco, a former geologist colleague, with whom we tell each other these past twenty years! The cool and the dark fall on us. After a few beers we say goodbye, with great affection, and I return to the residence, where I end the evening with a pizza, a bit of work and one of the fastest trips to bed!

SOUND FRAGMENTS

SHORT SARDINIAN STORIES

In the program ‘Free wheel’ by Alessandra Schepisi, broadcast today on Radio24/Sole24ore, they talk about cycling mobility in Sardinia. The first part is on my 377project. Then Alessandra interviews Nicola Melis, the president of the 100 towers association, which talks about the 100 Tower Walk, the route I have already talked about previously, which runs for 1284 kilometers, 105 towers, 88 municipalities and 450 kilometers of long beaches, along the perimeter of the island, among dunes, churches, lighthouses and enchanting places. A walk that can be followed on foot and on horseback as well as by bicycle. And finally Massimiliano Braghin, president of InfinityHub, talks about Italy’s first solar cycle track in Villasimius, capable of producing electricity from the photovoltaic panels incorporated along the route. I hope that the program has also been listened by some Sardinians … there is a need for the bike culture to develop and grow in our island!