WE WERE delivered to the ferry terminal in Palermo by Giovanni, who would not hear of us checking out at the regular time and insisted that we wait at the apartment until 6pm so he could deliver us to the ferry personally. So many times on this journey we have found it a bit hard leaving some of the good friends we have made behind.
The ferry trip to Cagliari was an over- nighter and we travelled deck cargo as there were no cabins available.
Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and an autonomous region of Italy. It is located in the Western Mediterranean, just south of the French island of Corsica. Unlike Italy and Sicily it is not earthquake prone. Our base was its capital and largest city Cagliari, population approximately 160,000. It is not the hyped up Mediterranean Island destination that so many of the islands are. Yes, the tourists are there but somehow it doesn’t seem to affect the place — it is unspoiled. What really is impressive is how clean and tidy Cagliari is. We would assume that the lack of earthquakes has helped, but although the American bombers gave it serious attention in WW2, the city has been restored and shows little signs of the destruction.
We travelled to Iglesias, a small town 50km from Cagliari, population 27,000, a train journey of just 1 hour each way, for a day trip. This town, once famous for its silver mines, is steeped in medieval history — there are still a lot of, not so ruined, old fortifications and buildings there.
Transport to and from the islands had been a bit of a challenge and the journey to Barcelona was no different, however we managed to find a direct flight (10.30pm). This flight was delayed for 1hr 30, however, we unpacked the back packer and with the help of another guitarist from Rome we managed to entertain the waiting passengers with a bit of good old New Zealand style country. The reaction of our fellow travellers was awesome to say the least — when the flight was finally announced, nobody seemed to be in any great rush to board.