INSPIRATION

Today’s distance is very short. Two kilometers straight and I arrive in Masainas where the Mayor Ivo receives me. We take a tour in the village, from the Town Hall we walk down the driveway decorated with tall palm trees and head towards the church square, which actually contains two churches, the old one of San Giovanni baptist with the new one next to it, much more modern and perhaps a bit too close to the old one.

The streets around are the first nucleus of Masainas, originally a fraction of Giba, which then became an autonomous municipality in 1975. Here one can still see very old houses, some used only as deposits, others now ruins. We descend to the main street, passing by a small square that houses a centuries-old olive tree, 600 years old, with a beautiful white stone fountain in front of it.

It’s lunch time and Ivo decides to take me to lunch … at the Locanda Rosella in Giba!! Stefania is surprised and happy to see me again and the food is excellent, a pasta with an incredible goat meat sauce.

In the afternoon we visit the surrounding area. We go down to the coast, Ivo shows me four thematic cycle pathswhich can be followed, among which the one of the vineyards, and that of the medaus, the typical country houses. In fact, the whole area is full of them, and the areas are named after the surnames of the historical owners, as already seen in many municipalities of this territory, such as Is Crobeddus, Is Cuccus, Is Lais, Is Lois. Many of these farmhouses are renovated and are rented during the summer. Others, on the other hand, are almost ruins and still have original details and decorations.

After crossing fields of artichokes and vineyards of both Carignano and Vermentino, we arrive at Is Solinas, an area that is sided by a lagoon on one side, full of flamingos and other species of birds, and the beach on the other. Unfortunately, the weather of this winter has made the beach back a lot, but the sand dunes are healthy, well fixed by the vegetation, mainly juniper, of various types, even rare.

We go back to the village facing south, where artichokes are the best, and return to my home for tonight, the Antica Casa Manca, on the main road. We end the evening with a nice pizza in the Town Hall, with Mayor Ivo and Councilor Ilaria, coming specially with her family to meet me. The two types of wine produced by Ivo, a Carignano and a Vermentino, will help me sleep.

 

SOUND FRAGMENTS

SHORT SARDINIAN STORIES

Woman entrepreneur 2. Francesca owns and manages the Antica Casa Manca, a beautiful tourist residence on the main street of the village. The old building, has been renovated very well preserving all the original features, and from the outside it makes a nice effect, with its solar colors and a beautiful green portal, matching the other fixtures.

Francesca welcomes me and shows me my apartment. I’m struck by a lot of details, from the old tile floors, to antique furniture and objects from the past, all original. I immediately identify a beautiful study room where I will work.

In the evening Francesca invites me to take a tea in the part of the house where she lives and tells me her story and that of this house. She is an architect, has studied and lived in Florence for more than twenty years, until one day, when she returned from the Sardinian sun to the Florentine cold, in a moment she felt that the experience was closed and that she would have to return to Sardinia .

Since then she has dedicated herself to resume her grandmother’s house, to renovate it using materials of the time as much as possible, planning the works and following them personally day after day, until the house is what it is now, a little gem. Slowly Francesca entered the professional world in Sardinia where she works as an architect, a profession that even in Masainas is possible!