Friday, June 8, 2012

Cagliari

A pretty post-card-of-Italy looking street.
Another pretty street, this time looking down to the sea

The square where I had lunch. I saw it and knew I had found the perfect spot...

You know you're in Italy when you're navigating by churches
100 points for anyone who can translate whatever that says!

Cagliari. It sounds like seafood, but it's actually a place in Italy. Sardinia in fact. Where I am currently (although not for much longer, admittedly; we leave day after tomorrow) located. I am liking it a great deal, it is warm, sunny, delicious food, and amazing coffee. Also it is generally stunningly pretty. And it has flamingos. I don't quite know how or why, I thought they came from somewhere in Africa, but apparently I don't know anything much about flamingoes. Strangely I'm okay with that. Also, did I mention they have amazing coffee here. I had almost forgotten what good coffee was like.

All the best graffiti is always foreign. Always!


So basically I had about 4 hours to explore Cagliari. It was nice, but I had about half an hour of warning, and a guide-book in Italian. The sum total of my knowledge of the Italian language at that point was 'Ciao'. It is now 'Ciao' and 'Grazie'. I shall follow the principal I used in France, and hope that some combination of manners in the appropriate language, English and gesticulating wildly will generally achieve my aims. So far, so good I might add. Anyhow, the result of my lack of warning, and lack of Italian skills was that I got time to explore, with no idea of what there was to see or do in Cagliari, so I just wandered around. It was lovely wandering, the buildings were very pretty. There were old alleyways and apartments where people were drying their washing above the street, and had flowers in planters outside their windows. There were scooters and graffiti. I am told it is reasonably representative of any Italian town, which of course makes me even more motivated to explore Italy! I found some pretty jewellery (Sardinian style apparently), and bought some tops and shorts. I am always impressed how cheap clothes in Europe are always so much better than cheap clothes in the UK. They're just so much nicer! European style, definitely better.  I had lunch alfresco in a little square under a tree (see above) and then wandered some more, found amazing coffee served by an incredibly hot waiter who ran away as soon as I started talking English at him, bought icecream. I then wandered about with said icecream, becoming steadily more lost, until such point as I realised hat I really had to get back to work quite soon, so hiked it down the hill to the waterfront, across, and realised I had wandered quite a way over a hill, and hiked back up in a bit in search of a taxi or tourist information, and finally stumbled upon the Piazza. Oops. Never mind, it was still fun. And it bodes very well indeed for future explorations of Italy!