I Like Cool Beverage, Yeah…

Drinking in Sardinia…

a) Water – always bottled. You get a big one-liter bottle with your dinner and go from there. “Naturale,” if you don’t want it fizzy.

b) Beer – the local beer is “Ichnusa.” The basic model is not very good, kind of like Bud. The “Non-Filtrato” is very good. The lemon radler is basically a lemon soda. We never felt any buzz from it whatsoever.

c) One good beer not pictured here was called “Friska”. I think that was also local.

d) The wine is OK. The only one we were really taken with was a dessert wine we never found again.

e) We discovered a wild soft drink called “Chin 8”, pronounced “kin-AUGHT-o”. It was kind of a Moxie meets Dr. Pepper. Also available in Diet!

f) Summer afternoon, hot… drink, drink! Alcohol, sure, but it doesn’t have to be. Limonata, Chin-8, granita (ice slushy), smoothie (lots of smoothies)…

f) Late afternoon: Apertivo! Spritz! Drink, drink!

g) After dinner: Digestivo! Grappa! Drink, drink!

Pasta, Cozze, Vongole…

Popular way to have pasta – with shellfish. I’m not really a shellfish person. I usually avoid dishes with “too many mussels” (reference). But when in .. um.. an island due west of Rome… it was always tasty and I never regretted getting a pasta & shellfish dish.

Insalata, Contorni

An unusual presentation of the usual vegetables. The grilled vegetables: always zucchini, eggplant, peppers.

And the mixed salad: always a chopped iceberg-type lettuce, with some variation of tomatoes and/or carrots and/or cucumbers. Always with a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of vinegar, and salt on the side. Incidentally, this was the way my mother always had her salad. I kind of like it.

And the tomatoes. Always tomatoes. Always cherry. They came on everything. And since X doesn’t eat them, I always had to eat both his and mine (it’s the law). So I came away feeling like a big cherry tomato.

Carta da Musica

This is the “bread” that comes with every single sit-down meal. It’s a super-thin cracker. It’s really only good when coated with olive oil and salt. Otherwise, it’s a mindless pre-meal munch.

Fregula, Tre Modi!

My favorite Sardinian dish, fregula! (FRAY-goo-la). Read about it at the Page-a-Day calendar:

https://christinestaffa.blog/2018/07/21/day-5-a-oristano-e-fregola/

Here we have it with mussels, tomatoes, and garlic… in a broth with clams… and with tomato sauce on a bed of Carta da Musica – the ubiquitous cracker-y bread.

Arrivederci, Sardegna!

When I think of Italy, I think of:

Sunshine
Warm ochre walls, real stone arches, narrow streets
A bench by the side of the road – no view, no bus stop; why is it here? Then you discover that half the day it is the office for little old ladies.
A bar at noon time – this is the office for little old men.
The promenade at noon time as shopkeepers lock up and head home – or wherever they care to be for the next four hours
A bar at 4 PM – the old men are back; or did they ever leave?
A table where everything is delicious
A constant flow of beverages
A man in a dapper suit; it is never too hot to look good. Nobody goes out looking like a slob. With the beauty of art, antiquity, and nature all around you, you want to be part of the picture.
A gelato on a hot summer night watching the evening promenade. Join in!

Go to Italy and join in! Not necessarily in July. But really, it didn’t matter to me that it was too hot. I feel Italy in my blood and bones and my suntan. I see my Gramma everywhere. I always hope I take a little bit of it home with me each time.

Day 13: Bari Sardo

Gotta go with this one for Day 13. Our last day in Sardinia – but I’m not leaving until I take ONE! MORE! BIKE RIDE!

Day 12: Buon Compleanno!

Happy birthday to Xopher! Unfortunately his birthday was marked by a lot of driving; but along the rugged east coast, we stopped for a surprisingly elegant birthday lunch with a luscious view.

Winding down now… the various things I thought we could pack into this day, back when I was in Vermont packing things into the schedule, looked not at all feasible or desirable anymore. When we go back again, in cooler weather, we’ll have to spend more time on the east coast.

Day 11: Porto Cervo e San Pantaleo

On day 11, there was snorkeling in Porto Cervo. Port Cervo is where the jet set go to set their jets. There were lots of yachts. There were teenage/20s girls on the trip with flawless skin and bikinis that cost way too much to get wet; and two other families who didn’t talk to us.

No, it’s not exactly my scene, but Xopher had a particular aversion to the whole area, so on both our nights there, we traveled inland to spend the evening hours in more “authentic” towns. Here are some metallic goats, chained up so they don’t roam away and chew all the scenery. They were among the many charming aspects of San Pantaleo, an artsy spot where we art-spotted and people-watched and ate dinner both nights.

Day 10: Tempio

For Day 10, I am showing you Tempio, a random mountain town we stopped in on our next drive from one lodging to another. It was high up and relatively cool. There was shade, as you can see; there was this lovely wide shady walkway. There was real stone arch brickwork, there were narrow European streets to get lost in. There was a luncheon with specialties typical to the region. I feel like I need to do an entire blog that is just the food.