I am Italian, from a beautiful island whose name is Sardinia, and for one or another reason, I haven’t been able to go home for two years. Today I have been looking for a particular song in Sardinian. This piece gives me goosebumps, and I started thinking about the things I miss, including friends and family members, so I decided to let you know about my beautiful land or, at least, the things I miss more.
Weather: the island is sunny and hot, sometimes even too hot, with at least 30 degrees during the summer, but even 40. I don’t miss 40 degrees, and I don’t miss the mosquitos in summer, but I miss that usually, if the morning is sunny, the day will be bright, and the summer nights are warm too.
Food: I miss the variety of fish: grey mullet and eels (grilled during festivals), culurgiones (a kind of dumplings filled with potatoes, mint and pecorino cheese) topped with a simple tomatoes sauce, seadas (a sweet with a sort of very thin pastry filled with fresh pecorino cheese and lemon peel, fried and with honey on the top), Mirto (a liqueur made with myrtle berries) and a hundred things that make my mouth watering just to think about them.
I almost forgot: red wine, especially Cannonau. A robust wine known for “cutting the legs”: after been drinking it for a while, you’ll not be able to stand up!
Sea: how not miss it? There are different kinds of beaches: rocky, sandy, pink (closed to the public because locals and tourists were taking the sand and it was disappearing). Some beaches have sand similar to flour, pleasant to touch, but after, you’ll find it everywhere, especially inside your costume! I can’t swim, so I prefer low and transparent water. Little detail: in most beaches, the water is so clear that you can see your feet if you go into high water. Advice for tourists, especially with light skin: bring with you repellent for mosquitos, high protection sunscreen, sun umbrella and coins for parking and ice-creams.
Coffee shops/Bars: in Italy, coffee shops and bars are generally the same things: children go there for ice cream, someone wants an espresso while the friend takes a beer or one aperitivo, there is no separation between them and sometimes (but that’s not a nice thing) there is even a tobacco shop. They are open until late, and I really miss that, especially when it’s cold, and I would like a hot chocolate at 9p.m. An Italian hot chocolate, more a pudding than a drink, because it’s thicker.
My language: I miss the possibility to speak Sardinian, the only way is to phone someone, but I am forgetting words 🙁 Recently I spent a couple of hours trying to remember how the word for radish is, and now that I think about it, I forgot it again!
Cagliari: the main city in Sardinia; I lived there for 10 years. I like to walk in the historic centre, even if it is very hilly! There is a concentrate of history, and from there you can see the fortifications and the see together. You can stay out the whole night and at 3 a.m. have a fragrant croissant filled with custard (don’t eat immediately: it’s lava!!!”)
The good news is that probably I will go back for Easter, and for sure I will fill my suitcase with food, hoping that at the customs they will understand that the food is all for me and my gluttony, and I am not trying to sell it. If you want to have a holiday in Sardinia, I will provide you with the best advice I have about food, airports, places to visit and so on!
Last but not least: as I am pretty nostalgic today, I will reveal the popular Sardinian song I was speaking about in the introduction, “A diosa”, which means “To a Goddess” and, as you can imagine, is a love song. Here, you can find the version I prefer (the old-fashioned one), but here you can find the translation.