We are back! After more than two years away, we are finally back on the legendary Sea Cloud, and we could not be more excited. The officers and crew are more welcoming than ever, and our first day did not disappoint. After leaving Naples to start our journey, we slowed down for stunning views of Capri before we enjoyed our first exquisite dinner aboard. Sailing through the night and into the morning we go westward across the Tyrrhenian Sea. With the seas in our favor, we enjoyed a play-by- play by Captain Svendsen as the crew went aloft and set the sails for the first time in our voyage. As the sailors brace the yards, go aloft to loosen the gaskets on the sails, and return to the deck to set the trim sails, it truly is a stunning mechanical process.
After our delicious lunch and a bit of a siesta, we were titillated when Tom Heffernan, historian for Lindblad Expeditions, spoke on the topic of Black Death. He explained how it gave birth to a new Europe and the implications it has today. Then we enjoyed an informative talk by our certified photo instructor, Massimo, on smart phone photography to set us up for all the amazing moments we will capture during our voyage.
Once we had absorbed all that the day provided us, our Captain treated us to a Welcome Cocktail Party. He introduced the officers and key staff. We were surrounded with good conversation and magnificent cocktails. This was followed by one of the many fabulous dinners we will enjoy on this adventure.
We ended the evening by sailing onward towards Cagliari, Sardinia with sensational tunes played by our pianist Mario.
Leah grew up in a small coastal town in the Pacific Northwest with Olympic National Park in her backyard, and it was here where her love of all things wild began. Ever since she ran around shipyards at an early age and watched her dad work in the mar...
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The sea was gentle this morning as we boarded our tender to motor into the lovely, protected harbor of Alghero. The first thing one spies from the sea is the Castello and its massive protective walls. Many of the Sardinian towns on the coast suffered from depredations from the Barbary pirates (from North Africa) and hence the construction of large, fortified walls facing the sea. Once on shore we boarded our transport ship “Neptunos” to Neptune’s Grotto four kilometers across the bay. The ride across the bay was lovely with a fresh breeze and we were making 21 knots. The grotto was deep and stunning. As we went deeper into the interior, the views became ever more beautiful – large caverns of crystalline stalagmites and stalactites formed delicate columns 100’ tall, and beneath them were limpid pools of transparent sea water. It was truly a natural cathedral and surely took millions of years for the drops of limestone to form such fantastic shapes. We then returned to Alghero and broke into two groups. We visited a stunningly beautiful house of Franciscan Friars. The cloister was particularly beautiful and the carvings on the capitals were fine. After lunch we returned to Alghero and rode through a protected ecological zone to visit the small boutique wine estate of “L’d’Ittiri Wines.” There, we sampled three very good wines, a rosé, a white, and a richly complex and strong red with an astonishing – and I should say – stupefying 15.9% alcohol! The wines were accompanied by local olives, cheeses, and bread dipped in olive oil made on the estate. I think virtually everyone purchased the wines and the olive oil, which were very reasonably priced given that they were artisanal products, made entirely by hand. We then boarded our coaches for a return to Alghero for a short walking tour of the old city. I was struck by the frequency of the street names that were in Catalan, the national language of Catalonia and Barcelona. In fact, the people of Alghero speak a dialect of Italian that is heavily influenced by Catalan. The Spanish colonized this area for some centuries, so this makes sense. Alghero is clearly a city of some wealth as we passed all the world-famous shops such as Gucci, and dozens of shops selling fine jewelry and local products. The shops that sold jewelry seemed to specialize in red Mediterranean coral. The coral market is strictly regulated, and there is a limit on how much can be taken. We returned to Sea Cloud and settled in for our conversation, cocktails and one of the inimitable dinners we have become so fond.
The beautiful Sea Cloud displays her sails in the morning as we move along the western coast of Sardinia to our new destination, Oristano. While I enjoy the views, I cannot believe that I am finally visiting an island that has been in my imagination for two decades. Not only because this is a melting pot for several civilizations, but because it is a place where women have played an important role in its history. For example, the first Italian to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature (1926) was Grazia Deledda, a native of Sardinia. Eleanora of Arborea enacted a code of law in effect on the island from 1395 until 1827. Which, among many modernizing norms, gave daughters and sons the same inheritance rights. And it seems that even from the times of the enigmatic Nuragic civilization, there was a deep respect for femininity, in the cult of the mother-goddess, a symbol of fertility. We can confirm it in the afternoon when we visit the well of Santa Cristina. The whole complex, when looked up from the air, seems to have been built in the shape of a womb. In this sacred place, the Nuragic people probably came for purification rites during religious ceremonies. Our superb guide, Paola, shows us the different constructions that probably hosted the pilgrims that came from far and wide with offerings, from animals to bronze statuettes. The festivals may have lasted days, but the most important thing was to descend the 25 steps into the well to touch the purifying water. Everything about this civilization is mysterious. Why are the rocks leading into the well so perfectly cut? Basalt in symmetric angles, precisely measured, for walls around and in other constructions are like towers – never as polished or as sharp. It is as if they belonged to two different civilizations. Much later, in the 11th century, the bigger boulders were used for the building of the church of Santa Cristina. However, the magnificence of the well, its perfection, still leads us into contact with an element that should still be treated as sacred, water. The next visit takes us to Nuraghe Losa, another impressive tower looking like a solid trapezoid, from the 11th century BC. Many questions come to mind about the enigmatic Nuragic people. Did other civilizations write about them? Why did they stop building the round towers by the end of 1000 BC? We can walk to the very top of this one and enjoy the view of the valley, the “Canpidano oristanese.” We distinguish a few cork oaks and learn that Sardinia is second after Portugal in the production of cork in the world. Dinner this time is at a local farm, “Agriturismo Archelao,” where we taste the delicious specialties from the island, like suckling pork, lamb, and pecorino cheese, with local wines and finishing with a magnificent aromatic liquor called “Mirto rosso,” produced by macerating the berries of myrtle (Myrtus communis). We also enjoy folk music, and even join in the dancing. We head back to the ship passing again by the Lagoon of Santa Giusta and its little church built on the reclaimed land of the marshes. The sweet taste of myrtle is still on my lips, the music of “balu tundu,” the round dance, makes me smile. Sardinia is in my heart.
The sun rose at about 5:50 and by 6:15 we were alongside the dock in Cagliari. Our first morning in Sardinia was a perfect one – the sun was already showing suggestions that it would be warm, the winds were slight and the journey to Su Nuragi was an easy one. At one point we passed a flock of flamingos feeding in the salt flats that abound here. After a 75-minute ride through the unspoiled Sardinian countryside, we arrived at our destination of the prehistoric site of Su Nuraxi just outside the small village of Barumini. Suddenly emerging from the landscape was a stone habitation complex of small homes which were surrounded by a complex of four corner towers dominated by a centrally positioned massive tower built with cyclopean stones. Since the Nuragi people left no written records, we are forced to provide educated guesses about the settlement. The Nuragi towers were fortifications designed to accommodate the surrounding villagers if attacked. They were built by constructing two parallel walls, one exterior and one interior approximately four feet apart. As the large stones for the walls were laid and the complex grew in height, the area between the stones was layered with smaller stones and clay and hence a ramp like structure developed incrementally. I made a crude measurement of the interior diameter of the large tower across the floor where the well was located, and it is approximately 38’ wide. It is important to note that these people were skilled in metallurgy and made their own bronze tools and weapons. The complex was begun about 1650 BCE and was continuously inhabited until 600BCE. We saw querns for grinding grain, kneading tubs, and the ovens where the bread was baked. There are some 6000 plus Nuragi settlements scattered throughout Sardinia. After lunch we had a walking tour of the old town and walked by the Roman Amphitheatre built ca. 90CE. Unfortunately, the amphitheater is being repaired and it is closed to visitors. We then visited the brilliant new archaeological museum. The artifacts exhibited cultures from the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age, through the Punic, Greek, and Roman periods. We then walked a short distance to the Cathedral of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians. She appears to have been a genuine historical figure who was imprisoned and martyred during the empire-wide persecutions of the Roman Emperor Diocletian in 303 CE. The interior of the Cathedral is in the baroque style. Of particular note was the crypt with the hundreds of tiles detailing the images and names of Christian martyrs. In one small chapel, I was surprised to find a tomb of the young son of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. I noticed directly behind this elaborate tomb the façade of a Roman sarcophagus for a young boy. While it may seem odd to have an elaborate sculptural motif of a pagan Roman child in a Christian church, such practices were commonplace. The term for the reuse of such earlier artifacts is spolia as in the recycling, sometimes the earlier artifacts were spoiled or destroyed. We completed this wonderful day with a fabulous barbecue on the Lido Deck. There, mounted in monumental splendor, was a massive yellow fin tuna. And if that wasn’t enough, a roast suckling pig! Dinner was fantastic. The evening was wonderful and all went off to bed having had an outstanding day.
