Page 551 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

SOUTHERN IT AL Y  549

SARDINIA

In his travelogue Sea and Sardinia, D H Lawrence wrote
that Sardinia was “left outside of time and history”. Indeed,
the march of time has been slow here, and traditions from
ancient Europe have survived – the legacy of invasion by
Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Byzantines,
Spaniards and Savoyards.

These traditions are displayed in Sardinia’s south of Sassari. The nuraghi were built
many festivals – some soberly Christian, by a people whose origins constitute
others with pagan roots. Several different one of the Mediterranean’s great
dialects and languages are spoken mysteries. In Cagliari, the cap ital of
in Sardinia. Catalan can be heard in Sardinia, there is a museum with an
Alghero, and on the island of San Pietro excellent archaeological collection that
there is a Ligurian dialect. In the south, offers insight into this enigmatic people.
the traditional influences are Spanish, Sassari, Oristano, Alghero and Olbia are
while conservative native strains of all centres of areas marked by their
people and language survive in the individuality. Some remarkable Pisan-
Gennargentu mountains. Peopled by Romanesque churches are located around
shepherds in isolated communities, this Sassari and here, too, dialects reveal close
region is so impenetrable that invaders links with the languages of Tuscany. Olbia
have never bothered it. is a boom town made rich by tourism and
Of particular interest are the prehistoric the proximity of the jet-setting Costa
nuraghi castles, villages, temples and Smeralda. Sober Nuoro with its province in
tombs dotted around the countryside – the shadow of the Gennargentu mountains,
most notably around Barumini, north by contrast, has little in common with the
of Cagliari, and in the Valle dei Nuraghi, Sardinia of tourist brochures.

Relaxing during the day in the tiny resort of Carloforte on the Isola di San Pietro, next to Sant’Antioco
The gorgeous turquoise waters of Costa Paradiso, Sardinia

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