INSPIRATION

To go from Ovodda to Teti I could go back to Tiana. It would be a little shorter. But my intention is never to go over roads already made, at the cost of making longer and harder roads. My path must be like a thread that unites all villages without ever overlapping.

So I decide to go down to Lake Cuchinadorza. A beautiful downhill, which then unfortunately will mean big uphill. In this area I’m quite used to the climbs.

The day is beautiful but it’s cold. I go down fast towards the lake. I pass the Enel hydroelectric plant, the abandoned village that had been created for its employees with a church, a school, and other services. In a kind of ledge on the lake and all surrounded by trees, it almost seems to be on the shores of a lake in the Alps.

I cross the bridge over the river Taloro, with the dam, and from here on it’s all uphill. Many coaches and cars pass me. I will understand only after they all go to Tiana for the Autumn in Barbagia event.

The Vice Mayor Romina and Gianfranco await me at Teti, who will take me around for the whole day. After a short walk in the historic center of Teti decorated with murals and statues, we stop at the beautiful archaeological museum where the guide Ignazia illustrates the importance of the nuragic sites found in the area, from which come an innumerable amount of artifacts and bronzes, the most famous of which became the symbol of the village, the God Warrior.

After lunch, Ignazia guided me through one of the two archaeological sites, the Nuraghic village of S’Urbale. A magical place, a surreal calm, where the remains of nuragic huts (many!) emerge, with a stones base. The missing part was the roof, of which, however, some remains of the plaster that bound all the poles and branches is visible.

The interior of one of these huts has been faithfully rebuilt in the museum. I regret not having brought my ukulele here, the place is truly inspiring and the view from here is breathtaking.

I conclude the day at the church of San Sebastiano, one of the many churches in Sardinia where parties are celebrated that mix sacred and profane rituals, where music and dance are an integral part of the celebrations. In the now empty cumbessias I can only imagine the people who cook and the perfumes that emanate from here on feast days.

SOUND FRAGMENTS

Inspired by the S’Urbale site. Archaic music, nuragic. Written in Austis, at the Agriturismo Da Valore.

SARDINIAN SHORT STORIES

Pinuccio has Tonarese origins but lives in Teti. Only for two years, since he returned to Sardinia. For 55 years Pinuccio lived in Genoa, he was a truck driver. With his truck he toured Europe, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Eastern Europe. He drove on that collapsed bridge in Genoa so many times. Not only. He often stationed on a rest area on the bridge. And then he drove again. Day and night. Wherever he went he tried local foods. One thing he does not like: the black pudding. But in the former Yugoslavia, ordering from an incomprehensible menu, he gets just the black pudding. He cannot eat it. He orders another dish. Another inedible thing. All he can do is get out of the restaurant, still hungry. In Germany, he gets lost looking for a street in Cologne. When he stops to ask a taxi driver in German, the latter answers him in Sardinian “I’ll take you there, I’m from Orune!”

But above all, Pinuccio is a poet. He writes poetry every day, for everyone and everything. He reads many poems, in Sardinian, of which I understand the general sense but not all the details. One is very beautiful, dedicated to the women of Teti, all beautiful. Their beauty also affects women who moved to Teti, who become beautiful by reflection! And Pinuccio also sings his poems, with a beautiful voice. In short, a lucky meeting. So much so that Pinuccio writes me a poem!