INSPIRATION

Today short route, a bit of a climb, wind and an ambivalent weather, sun-clouds.

I arrive and wait in the bar, where I am supposed to meet my contact Luca, suggested by Riccardo from Luogosanto. Luca arrives, we take a coffee and take my bike and luggage at his home. We take the car to visit the area. First of all the beautiful dolmen Ladas, not far from the village center, on a granite hill from which you can see most of the Gallura. In front of us the Monte Pulchiana, a large granitic peak (inselberg in geological terms.)

We take that direction, then go along the Liscia lake, which I’ve already seen on the other side of my day in Sant’Antonio di Gallura. Luca explains to me that the name of the lake was Iscia, and the letter L arrived later, as an article, “L’iscia”. We are right on the border with Luogosanto, I begin to connect these territories geographically to my intricate route. We arrive up to some vineyards with stazzi (local country houses), and Luca tells me about his main activity, that of producing wine, and of the dream of planting vineyards with only types of millenary local grapes, which are about to go extinct.

We continue for an important site, that of the millenary olive trees. We arrive and take a tour of the paths that surround these plants, one of which is impressive. These titans were here well before the birth of Christ. The oldest is 3800 years old. Back in the village we stop for an aperitif in a nice little place just opened, where finally I can taste the wines produced by Luca, Sassu wines, in the two types, a vermentino and a cannonau, both delicious, of which the beautiful bottle also amazes me.

At lunch I am with Luca and his brother Alessandro. Luca tells me various facts about Luras, such as the importance of cork production, as I saw yesterday in Calangianus, of the Sardinian ‘berritta’ (type of hat) and the importance of trade with all of Sardinia. Luras is also a linguistic island. While the Gallurese is spoken all around, Luras speaks what is called “Sardinian”, the Logudorese.

I spend the afternoon visiting the center of the village, houses strictly built in granite, which develop around the beautiful granite churches of Nostra Signora del Rosario and San Pietro. I then go to the Galluras Museum, in a beautiful historic building right in the center. Here I am guided to the part of the ethnographic museum, which preserves a whole series of tools of the old crafts, but above all to the part that shows the figure of ‘S’accabadora’, of which I have already spoken on the page of Triei, and that here is called Aggabadora. Here I also admire an original specimen of very hard olive tree hammer, which was used to inflict the “final blow”.

The day ends with a nice dinner with friends at Luca’s, where the atmosphere is friendly, with people just met and who at the end of the dinner, after several bottles of Sassu wine, leave a money contribution for my project .

 

SOUND FRAGMENTS

 

SHORT SARDINIAN STORIES

In the past few days the tour of another traveler cyclist in Sardinia has just ended, which I followed on Facebook under the name of Viaggiatore Lento (slow traveller). We exchanged messages and I asked him these questions:

1 Name, Surname, Place of origin
2 Family ties with Sardinia?
3 Start the end of your tour in Sardinia
4 Route
5 Why the choice of Sardinia and of this path
6 Whatever you want to say about the experience!

Here are his answers:

1 Federico Veronesi, comes from Brentonico in the province of Trento

2 No link with Sardinia

3 Started April 31st from Alghero, arrived in Cagliari on May 11th

4 Stages: 1 Alghero – Macomer, 2 Macomer – Fordongianus, 3 Fordongianus – Tharros (Cabras), 4 Tharros – Barumini (Mount Arci and Giara di Gesturi), 5 Barumini – Dunes of Piscinas (Arbus) (via Montevecchio), 6 Piscinas – Domusnovas (ascent to the mines of Is Arena, Sa Duchessa and Grotta di San Giovanni), 7 Domusnovas – Santadi .. through the old Sulcis railway, 8 round with Massimo Matta who guided me to Sulcis … (Tratalias , salt of Sant’Antioco, the coast of Porto Pino and return to Santadi), 9 Santadi – Chia, 10 Chia -Cagliari

5 This point deserves many and many words …. I love traveling Italy searching for its historical roots .. it started with the Francigena up to Rome where I discovered the Via Cassia and from there the love for the ancient Roman consular roads burst, then Puglia with an intense encounter with the Messapian civilization and the mysteries of dolmens and menhirs of which nothing is known yet … and today Sardinia and the choice of the route has been dictated by the desire to know better its historical roots, the nuraghi in the first place …. that I had crossed absent-mindedly in my first Sardinian trip in 2011 instilling me a drop of curiosity, which remained latent until a few months ago when I had to choose the destination of a new cycle route … and so on … the immense stones of the nuraghe Santa Barbara and Succoronis in Macomer, Nuraghe Losa in Abbasanta, Barumini … to which many other “discoveries” have been added along the way that have left me speechless. And then sacred wells (Santa Cristina above all) that taught me the deep and sacred bond of nuragic people with water .. the mystery of the giants of Monte Prama and their hypnotic gaze that suggested to me the greatness of this people sealed in the art of bronze forging. But on the journey many others were born with the discovery of a Sardinia with even more ancient and deep roots carved and carved in the rock … the prenuragic spirals entered my heart, Tamuli, Montessu made me even more fall in love with this earth, the cult of the Mother Goddess left me amazed by the refined ability to shape the rock 7 thousand years ago. And then the Phoenician and Roman Sardinia of Tharros and Nora almost went “unnoticed” and “trivialized” by what I have seen of previous eras (do not misunderstand this please) ….

6 What about this experience … I have known people and enjoyed unexpected hospitality, the friends of Arkitano biking that on top of Mount Arci in a very cold day warmed me to the fire and offered food and friendship, the countless stops in the bars of the village where I almost never managed to pay … the great availability of Massimo Matta of the Casa del Cicloturista di Santadi together with his friend Doriano Muccelli …. the great hospitality of Federico Mongittu that as a complete stranger welcomed me in his Chia bar as an old friend … I traveled on dirt roads away from the most popular and busy streets, discovering wonderful areas as others still deeply wounded by a development model that has only enriched a few at the expense of an entire land (see the mining parks … real funfairs of horrors) … but I also had the impression that the Sardinian people in all this remained a little too much “at the window”, little inclined to roll up hands and more committed to the art of lamentation and complaints …. a Sardinian pride now useless, forgetting the greatness of the ancient Sardinian people and above all indifferent to the immense historical, cultural and tourist heritage increasingly hidden from the eyes and heart of the Sardinian people … but nevertheless this land has entered my heart like its perfumes and asks me to come back again.