Where does a heat-deprived girl go for a spot of sunshine after a long, cold winter? You'd think an island in the middle of the Mediterranean would be a good bet. I'm here to tell you it ain't necessarily so. A week ago I hopped a plane hoping hard for a sun-soaked holiday punctuated by great food, better wine, and maybe, just maybe, a daily dip in the sea.
The real-life version of Sardinia in early May didn't match the image of sandy-beach perfection in my head, but I got over it pretty quickly. Reason #1: The people. These are some of the kindest folk I've ever met. Waitstaff, in particular, take the Miss/Mister Congeniality prizes; on different occasions, they left work to shuttle me to a nearby bank-o-mat; bought me glasses of wine for no apparent reason; and saw to it that I didn't go hungry, making me special off-the-menu vegan meals and apero snacks.
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| Via Roma, the main thoroughfare in downtown Cagliari. |
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| The covered arcade on Via Roma. Burgerlandia? I'll stick with Portlandia! |
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| I wish someone hadn't torn this vegan poster. |
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| Sardinian wine is fabulous, and you always get a little snack to go with it. Here, focaccia bread--with cheese, sadly. |
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| Looking down toward the port. |
My B&B was fabulous; a bit out of the way, but worth the 20-minute bus ride--past salt marshes full of pink flamingos--into town. It was in a quiet residential neighborhood in a very small hamlet. I had my own suite, with double doors leading onto a sunny patio. The family dog was my constant companion, and I made friends with the indigenous fauna, too.
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| Breakfast was delivered to my room every morning. |
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| My outdoor breakfast spot |
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| Bok, my new buddy. |
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| On my walk to the supermercado in the village. |
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| More Sardinian countryside. |
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| Yay! Vegan stuff at the neighborhood market. |
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| I didn't try these vegan things, but I was tempted. |
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| The fresh focaccia was also calling my name. |
Most days I ate lunch at
la Terra di Mezzo. The town's only remaining veg restaurant. (There was another, but it recently closed.) The lunch buffet was vegan, and
molto bene. My favorite was the seitan with grilled artichokes. It was swimming in olive oil, which might have been one reason it tasted so good.
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| One half of the lunch buffet at Terra di Mezzo. |
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| The brown bit is the seitan with artichokes. Need to learn how to make that. |
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| Funky cigarette vending machine. |
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| Local architecture. |
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| Cagliari is full of graffiti; most of it pretty bad as far as I could tell. |
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| I'd file this under "mediocre" graffiti. This artist made his/her mark all over town. |
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| Got sucked into a store, then lost in the stripey vortex. |
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| My kind of apero: Prosecco, olives, potato chips AND peanuts. |
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| On top of the hill beside the archeology museum, looking south over the port. |
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| This cat needed rescuing :0( |
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| A century plant in bloom! |
This vacation wasn't the sunniest, nor the warmest, but it was relaxing and interesting. The architecture, the sea breezes, the people, and the food and wine are all reasons I'd return. In mid-July. (Or August.)
