Cagliari, Sardinia

Today we were in Cagliari, Sardinia. I learned three very important things today.

1.       Cag-Lee-Are-EEE is not how you pronounce it. It’s more like saying the word Calgary.

2.       That the Pope can decide what country you belong to.

3.       You can get too much Nutella.

So on the bus bright and early this morning and the tour guide, who was exceptional, kept saying this weird word. I could tell it was in reference to where we were and what we were seeing, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what the word was. Then about 30 minutes in I realized she was saying the correct pronunciation for Cagliari. More like Cah-yar-lee, than Cag-Lee-Are-ee, which was how I was pronouncing it.  

They speak two languages here; Italian and Sardinian. And two are VERY different. She gave us examples of words like Yes in Italian is Si. Yes in Sardinian is eeya.  

Cagliari on a whole was rather boring. It’s Easter Sunday so EVERYTHNG was closed. We couldn’t go into the cathedral because of church services, and all the shops and restaurants, well most of them, were closed.  

The history of this island was interesting to me. They were conquered so many times it really isn’t funny. Makes for an interesting history, but man, who knew one place could be “owned” by so many different countries and people in a relatively short time.  

At one point the Sardinians won their independence from Spain, I think, and a year later the Pope decided Sardinia belonged to Italy and Corsica to France.  So Italy sent the Savoy family here to “rule”.  I had no idea the Pope could do that.  

Anyhow, we walked through their old town and like many of the places here most of it was destroyed in WWII.  In fact, the American’s bombed Sardinia as a decoy at one point.  

After walking through old town it started to rain – well sprinkle really. Lots of pansies on this tour. “oh it’s raining.” Haha…that ain’t rain.  Anyhow, after walking through old town we headed down the hill to meet the bus. We had about 30 minutes of free time and oddly enough we found ourselves in a bar that served food, coffee, beer, wine, and gelato. Who knew?  

I first had a cup of Baci candy gelato. OMG it was delicious. And since I didn’t have gelato yesterday, I felt I deserved another cup. So I got a cup of Nutella gelato. Now in the past the Nutella gelato is “flavored” with Nutella. This was, and I’m not kidding, straight frozen Nutella. It was so rich and thick and a bit too much for this girl. I ate about three quarters and had to stop. STRAIGHT Nutella….I will admit I was in heaven, but I had to stop.  

Back on the boat we had a couple of hours before dinner. Mom napped, I worked on cleaning up my photos. We had reservations tonight for Tappinyaki – the Japanese BenniHanah type restaurant. It was delicious and entertaining and well worth the extra money. We’re getting tired of the food. 

On a side note, I had an odd thought this morning. Well, odder than normal.  I was thinking that while on the one and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself, on the other hand I’m ready to be home. This cruise when we signed up for it and it having only one sea day made me happy. Now, having been sprinting since we stepped foot in Rome, I rethinking how happy I was. I could have used another sea day.  

Tomorrow we’re in Palermo Sicily. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to seeing the city.