Day 7: Heading home

Our last run in Sardinia--the hills around Castello di San Michele in Cagliari

A view of the residential area where we stayed (this is near the airport)

Castello di San Michele

The B&B where we stayed was actually a cute little old lady's apartment and organized by her granddaughter. It was a little strange being in such close quarters with the owner but it was cozy and comfy, much like how I imagine it would be to stay with a grandma (or great-grandma).

Breakfast

More breakfast in the little porch connected to our room

La Signora

We made it to the airport with lots of time to spare, which was good because we had to deal with the car rental place and explain how we scratched up their car. After managing dirt roads full of goats, tiny twisty city streets, and miles of hairpin roads, we had backed into a stone marking a parking spot in the luxory resort of Porto Cervo...

A 500euro (over $700) scratch. This is partly why we had cold beans and tomato sauce two meals a day, every day.

We drove about 1300km (~800miles) over the 7 days. This really isn't that much but we could only drive between 40-60km/hr (about 25-40mi/hr) pretty much the entire way due to the twistiness of the roads. Also, we got really held up by the poorly marked (or rather overly and inefficiently marked) roads and had to do lots of stopping. At least we had a small little fuel efficient Lancia, which kept fuel costs down--we only had to put in about 110 euro ($170) for fuel (at about 1.50euro/liter, $8/gallon). Americans should not complain about their 'high cost' of fuel!

Day 6: The big city by the sea

After a morning run through some of the nearby hills, we checked out of Ulassai and headed back down south, taking the slow and scenic road (SS125) down in the valley between the mountains.

Early morning in Ulassai

Goat art high up on the cliff

Our eco-friendly hotel room with great big windows!

The drive along SS125 was colored by wildflowers of all shades of green and yellow

Past Muravera we stopped to visit the Nuraghe Asoru by the roadside (10th-8th centuries BC)

The inner courtyard (people were very tiny back then)

Seth was embarrassed to take this photo of me with the nice cactusBack on the road, winding through the southeastern Sette Fratelli mountains

We finished our grand tour of Sardinia by returning to Cagliari. We checked into our little B&B--located in a residential area on the edge of town--early enough to take the bus into town for the afternoon.

After a full week, our last meal of cold beans and tomato sauce with bread! Thank god.
Lots of Easter eggs!

This is where we bumped into the couple from Luxembourg that we met at the Coop hotel in Oliena (they were the only other guests at the hotel).

A great view from the Bastione San Remy

La Torre dell'Elefante

Day 5: Over the hills

We spent the next day weaving through the mountains heading south. Off the beaten path, the towns we passed were a little kooky, to say the least.

The back of the Coop hotel near Oliena. The piles of bags are actually filled with olive pits, which they use as an alternative energy to power the hotel. Very Italian, and very weird.

One of the large grocery stores we frequented sold oh-so-tempting tripe in a can. I wonder why Florence doesn't sell canned Lampredotto?

We took the twisty scenic route through Genna Silana's Pass.

Cars may fall off the side of the mountain, but goats may not

and neither will pigsLittle town (Gairo) near where the mountains meet the sea

Lunch break in Lanusei, which appeared (like many of the small towns) to be devoid of all its women

A typical lunch bag. I was so happy it was easy to find recycling bins in most locations!

Too much signage! Ironically there were many, many signs yet it was still insufficient to find your way. As a rule of thumb, within 2 minutes of seeing a sign pointing in our direction, we would be stopping to ask for directions.

We passed two eerie abandoned towns that faced each other from across the same valley. We were informed there was a flood and mudslide in the 1951 that wiped out the towns, and they were rebuilt in safer locations about 100 meters uphill.

Our eco-friendly hotel in the town of Ulassai. I am glad it was a nice place to stay, considering it was the only hotel for miles!

Downtown Ulassai

Going for a hike through the canyon and up the cliff overlooking the town. The trail was too poorly marked (of course) to go very far.

Too steep for me. I sent Seth climbing up the rocks by himself.

Looking down on UlassaiIt is hard to believe people live in these little shelters built into the rocks on the side of the mountain
Spooky

Beans and sauce at a table this time ... and heated up!

After dinner we hopped over to a little film festival that was going on in town. This night they were showing a couple documentaries at the local community center. Strangely the film we saw was in English with Italian subtitles (a foreign film, I suppose).