Eat, Walk, Discover

With thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert.

It has taken time to settle into Sardinia after the bucolic scenery of Tuscany and Umbria and the majesty of mountains and sea along the Amalfi Coast. I am intrigued with the interior of this large island, its size did surprise me as did its population of 2 million...

• crumbling stone walls forming paddocks and pastures,
  
• sheep, cows,
  
• parched fields, olives and vineyards, plowed fields waiting for the autumn rains


• hooded crows on every telephone line and in the fields
  
• ramshackle farmsteads


• rocky outcrops


• mountians with sea views


• stunted oaks and maples turning red
  

As we turned one of the corners on our drive across the island to the north western town of Alghero, we were stopped by a shepherd herding his flock of sheep. The noise was astounding, each sheep has a huge bell and I felt as though I was eventually seeing, and certainly hearing, Sardinia.

The wonder of the day was the discovery of the Nuraghe of Sardinia, the Bronze Age, megalithic structures of the interior. There are apparently over 8000 nuraghi in the interior of Sardinia. We spent time at the Nuraghe Santu Antine, which has the central cylindrical tower, a system of ogive corridors and vaults and it was intriguing and its gravitas compelling. Special in the late afternoon sun on a beautiful plain near Thiesi.