Cagliari

Cagliari — aka Casteddu in Sardinian … meaning castle — is the capital of the island of Sardinia, which is an autonomous region of Italy.

(I’ll follow this footprint of the general story of our day, with a couple of specific ones.)

Our first visit to Cagliari was in 2015 … on Nautica … another Oceania ship. On that occasion, we climbed up to the castle for beautiful views of the city laid out before us. Then, we got lost — on purpose — in the back streets of the city.

This time, we started out in the Quartiere Storico di Stampace … uphill from the waterfront. Our destination was the Orto Botánico. We were hoping to bookend the botanical garden with the ancient ruins of Villa di Tigellio (an aristocratic Roman villa from the Imperial Era, which tradition says belonged to Tigellius, a Latin poet) and the Roman Amphitheater (dating back to the 2nd century AD … half of it carved into the rock; half if it built using the local white limestone). Alas, both were “temporarily closed”, but we managed to get a good view of them anyway.

Our meandering walk then led us to a public garden, and from there to neighborhoods where we saw barely anyone until we arrived at the Cathedral. More narrow roads, with cobblestone “water channels” running down the middle, led us to the Bastione di Saint Remy, one of Sardinia’s majestic monumental complexes, which was built in a Classic style between 1896 and 1902 on the old city’s medieval bastions.

Making our way down from the bastion, we went to a “locanda” for a late lunch. It proved to be a partial disaster unfortunately. For one thing, though the tables were in front of the restaurant we thought we had selected, the one we were seated at actually belonged to a restaurant that was on a side street. That in itself wasn’t the issue. It was the inconsistent quality of the food that was the problem. My spaghetti alla carbonara was quite tasty and perfectly al dente. Mui’s pearl pasta with shrimp, on the other hand … well, the shrimp was cooked well, but the pearl pasta was practically raw. We sent it back and shared my pasta instead. Later, we made up for our disappointing meal by getting some delicious gelato from the incongruously named Peter Pan Gelateria.

All in all, we had a very nice day in Cagliari … the sun was out for most of the time. Comfy temps … except when the breeze picked up. And then it was quite chilly. Typical spring weather.

More to come on this day before we set sail …Read more