for those of you who think we've been slacking off on our travels... well we have ;) however, we did go to sardinia for a very short holiday at the beginning of august, and even though we only arrived friday night (spending most of the night at the airport trying to hire a car that had all the important parts attached), we made the most of our time there and in the end it felt like we'd been there for much longer! if only ;)
sardinia is an island off to the west of italy - there are 3 islands, sicily, sardinia and corsica, the former 2 being owned by the italians and the latter by the french. however, we stayed in a place called alghero, which is the only part of sardinia where they speak catalan (which originates from spain). needless to say I was rather confused as to whether people were speaking catalan or italian, as most of the tourists there were italian. fortunately, most spoke english :)
we had 2 absolutely brilliant experiences in sardinia. the first was a dream come true, yes there is actually water that crystal-clear blue colour!! it's not just photoshopped! In my research leading up to sardinia I had noted down a few beaches that were recommended to go to, however I couldn't remember anything about them. one of these beaches was La Pelosa, in Stintino. that was all I knew, but bec (we went with another australian couple bec & jeff) recalled one of her workmates talking about Stintino and seeing as it was the furthest away (1 hr) we decided to head there first. as we reached the top of a hill there was a loud gasp as bec, jeff and I (no, not morgan) caught sight of the colour of the water before us. oh my goodness, I have never been so excited in my life!!! as soon as we parked the car (and worked out how to pay for parking) bec and I ran down to the water leaving the boys to bring down all our stuff. the weather was perfect too - 30 degrees, extremely humid and the water was refreshing!
we stayed there for a good few hours and as a result got really burnt from it :( but it was so worth it!! unfortunately, that was the best beach we found, so all the other beaches we went to (although pretty good) just didn't compare to La Pelosa! If anyone ever goes there, you MUST go to La Pelosa in Stintino - you will not regret it!
the other awesome experience was one we almost missed out on! I'd bought a book on sardinia and bec had looked up the recommended restaurants. she'd decided on one called Sa Mandra, and after driving around for about half an hour trying to find it I was ready to go somewhere else. But bec was determined to find it and so after stopping in at the airport and asking the tourist information people (it's a small airport) we were told it was just down the road and in a farmhouse. We found it and walked inside and after some confusion the waitress sat us down at this big table. After sitting there for a bit waiting for the menu to be brought to us, this dude came and dropped off some bottles of water and red wine. we politely told him that we didn't order that, only to be told that it was included. thinking nothing of it we got stuck into the drink and shortly afterwards people started bringing out all sorts of plates with food and putting them in front of us. we had absolutely no idea what was going on and then suddenly it clicked that it must be a set menu! at which point we had about 8 different plates of just prosciutto and started getting scared about what the bill was going to look like at the end. we decided that it didn't matter how much it was, we'd just enjoy the experience! so we ate our antipasti, and then we had pasta, and then some more pasta, and then main meal was brought out - a lamb dish and roast suckling pig (both so tender and delicious!) and then dessert & some drinkies. and then the best surprise was the bill - we were all so scared to look at it and then when we did, it only came to €35 each! sweet!
the rest of the trip was spent visiting 4 other beaches, driving out to Capo Caccia and walking down a million steps to the most famous cave system -Grotta di Nettuno - only to find out that we'd missed the tour and had to walk all the way back up the million steps again. next time we'll read the sign at the top before heading down ;) we also spent both nights walking around the old town in alghero which was really pretty.... and eating as much gelato as we could fit in!
will definitely want to go back to Stintino sometime and swim in my dream water, but failing that I've discovered I can find my next dream water to swim in by using the satellite view on google maps - type in stintino and check out how blue that water is!!
photos...
