Sardegna, Italia
03/11/2022
Thursday was set for exploring the Nuraghe of Su Nuraxi and the surrounding area. Nuraghe are prehistoric towers made of basalt, and the Su Nuraxi ones are well preserved and have become a UNESCO world heritage site.
We arrived there after a quick ride from the hotel, where we had left a bit later than originally hoped. This left us just missing the guided tour and thus we had to wait 30 minutes for the next one, as entering on our own was not permitted. To add insult to injury, we were joined by a tour bus full of semi-culturally-interested Italian seniors, one of which received phone calls with a loud ringtone every other minute, letting us wonder if he had single-handedly become the world’s most sought-after telemarketer, or perhaps a high-profile celebrity hotline operator*.
In any case, we received a tour of the premises which led through some very narrow hallways – naturally causing congestion with many of the seniors unable to make it up or down ladders.
Despite the big group size, it was a great experience walking this ancient construction.
From its top, we had spotted a near perfect hill with a castle on top in the distance, making us wonder how that came to be. It would later turn out to be Castello Giudicale. We decided to investigate.
Before driving there, however, I just had to take a few pictures of the Nuraghe from above.
After doing so, we proceeded to Castello Giudicale, which as it turned out is located on top of a volcano. You might have guessed that it is a volcano, given the perfect volvic-water-bottle-icon-like hill form.
We followed a pathway uphill to reach it, realising that there must have been a fire recently, given that all the railings and some of the trees were burned.
Once on top, we noticed that there had been a half-hearted try to renovate the structure, based on a few bags on cement and some working equipment left there. We took a look around and enjoyed the panorama, which – you know the drill by know – I also wanted to capture.
We continued to a nearby excavation site Polo Museale ‘Casa Zapata’ where our ticket from earlier granted us access to. It was quite boring however, so we left to have lunch nearby. After finding some restaurants closed , we settled on ‘Cavallino della Giara Ristorante’. We then made our way back North to the town of Orosei where we would spend the night. On the way there, we drove through Orgosolo, a remote town known only for a high homicide rate and its street art, and across mountains with impressive panoramas. We then made our way to Orosei while stopping on the way for espresso and beer.
Another story to illustrate the downsides of travelling Sardegna off season: in Orosei, all but one restaurant were closed for the winter break. We only found it because one bar which was still open gave us a recommendation. In turn, we promised to come back later for drinks. However, at 10pm they were already closing shop, so the only thing left to do for us was going to bed as well.
The next morning we drove to the airport and flew back home. While it really was just a brief trip – 4 days if you include the evening of arrival and morning of departure – we really saw a lot of the island and got a desire to return and see more of this beautiful island.
Addio!
* Full disclosure, the punchline with “telemarketer or celebrity hotline operator” was created by my good friend ChatGPT.
Chat also proposed:
- …leading us to question if he was a world-renowned hotline psychic with clients constantly seeking his immediate predictions, or simply the head honcho of a 24/7 emergency pizza delivery service catering exclusively to late-night snack emergencies
and
- …letting us wonder if he was the exclusive tech support for the entire country, or maybe just a highly in-demand professional Pokémon trainer always on the verge of catching a rare legendary creature