The colorful streets of the Sardinian capital
After five days in beautiful, elite, expensive, magnificent Capri, we were actually looking forward to getting back to someplace ‘real’ again. So we ferried back to Naples and caught a flight to the Sardinian capital of Cagliari. And for a few days we got a great dose of the Sardinian version of ‘real’ — narrow streets colored by plenty of graffiti and laundry, sandy beaches with bright blue water, great stone walls dotted with palm trees and flowering jacarandas, and loads of fresh seafood. All of this is packed into a very pleasant city for strolling, people watching, and reading in the park.
We’ll spend 12 days altogether in Sardinia, probably traveling north along the western coast of the island — some of which we hope to do by bicycle. After that we’ll interrupt our island-hopping briefly to catch a flight to Rome so we can visit our friend Dara there. This wasn’t part of the plan until a few days ago, but if we can’t be spontaneous, who can?
Blooming jacarandas are spectacular against the stone walls of the old city
An easy bus ride took us from the center of Cagliari to the wonderful sandy Poetto Beach
Sea bass with olives!
More octopus
A first-century Roman amphitheater looks down on the huge bank of cacti along one side of the botanical garden
The whole city slopes up from the Mediterranean toward the old walled city, so there are lots of steps — and a little bit of graffiti
More stone walls, palm trees, jacarandas
