Sapore 2010: Italian Sideways - Part 15
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Day 15, Sunday, February 28
We have a continental breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Da Achille, opened just for us and two middle aged German bikers, the only other guests in the hotel. In summertime the population here increases five or six times and in August all the hotels are booked to capacity, but this time of year the island is a quiet paradise.
Sant'Antioco Ethnographic Museum: This panel features samples of bisso and memorabilia related to this amazing sea silk obtained from the long silky filaments, or byssus, secreted by a gland in the foot of big bivalve mollusks (pinna nobilis), by which attach themselves to the sea bed.
Despite our bad cold, we are committed to making the best of these few days of vacation, thus we spend the morning and early afternoon taking the so called Archeotur of Sant'Antioco, whic includes the archeologic area with the Villaggio Ipogeo (The Subterranean Village), Necropolis, Tofet, Archeological Museum, Fortino Sabaudo (Sabaudo Small Fort), and Ethnographic Museum Su Magasimu de Su Binu (Sardinian for The Wine Warehouse).
Subterranean Village: One of the tombs restored as it was when used as a household
Our guide, Emanuele, and Brigit look at the Sant'Antioco landscape from the Sabaudo Fort
We start from the Subterranean Village which consists of a section of the Punic necropolis consisting of many underground tombs which were reutilized as homes by the poorest families of the town as late as the 1960s. Certain tombs feature reproductions of Punic artifacts, while other have been restored as they were when they were used a households. Our guide in this first part of the visit, which includes also the small Sabaudo fort built in 1812 to guard the town from the Saracens pirates, as well as the Su Magasinu de Su Binu museum, is called Emanuele. Since there are just the two of us visiting, we have the opportunity to chat at length with Emanuele, who actually ends up staying longer than his shift, which should have ended at noon.
Museo Etnografico Su Magasinu de Su Binu
We then visit the necropolis, which was used by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians to bury the cremated remains of children and small animals according to obscure rituals, and the Tofet, which is an open air sanctuary founded in the first half of the 8th century B.C. Finally, we visit the archeological museum, a modern building inaugurated in 2001 which features pre-historic, Punic, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman artifacts found in the Sulcis area of Sardinia.
The Tofet archeological site with an unexpected guest a snake,
poking out from behind a broken funeral stone to warm up in the sun.
Afterwards we drive to the outskirts of town to the local mall to purchase chuncks of a couple of local sheep cheeses, fresh tomatoes, bread, and mineral water for what we have longed to do since we arrived on the island: have a bucolic lunch facing the ocean with this simple, yet delicious food. We notice a small, fluffy black and white dog who comes to share our lunch. We also notice someone has made a little doghouse for him under the bridge, and has hand painted 'Casa di Polpeta' (House of Meatball) on the small wooden structure.
Brigit with the dog Polpeta (Meatball)
Back at the hotel we feel very bad. Brigit has had a bloked ear for a couple of days now. On my part, after a couple of days of sore throat, my voice is almost completely gone, so much so that when our Italian marketing manager, Cristo Lepori, calls me from Rome, he cannot understand what I am trying to say to him. Our morning guide, Emanuele, had suggested an out of town restaurant which specializes in seafood, however I feel so bad that I don't want to get in the car and drive, so we call Il Cantuccio restaurant and ask if we can have a hot broth for dinner.
We walk to the restaurant where, once again we are the only guests and enjoy the hot seafood broth prepared especially for us, then I have the boiled Saragossa fish used to prepare the broth, while Brigit gets Fregola with Clams and Saffron. Despite the fact that we are eating seafood, tonight I feel like drinking a full bodied red, so our host decants for us a bottle of 2006 Rocca Rubia Riserva, a Carignano del Sulcis DOC by Cantina di Santadi.
While visiting the Subterranean Village, our guide had told us about a traditional Sardinian delicacy: the Pecorino cheese with worms, which basically process the cheese transforming it in a tangy cream. He said that when he was younger, they use to cut the top of the Pecorino wheel and eat the cheese straight from it, leaving the live worms in it and using the cut out top as a cover. Now this cheese is forbidden to market by European Union health safety laws and the only way to get it is by knowing a shepard who will provide it on the side. However, the processed cheese without worms can sometime be found, thus I asked our host about it, and certainly enough he had it. Brigit barely touched the tip of her tongue to it and could not stand it. She said that it reminded her of goat cheese, which she cannot stand. On the other hand, I totally enjoy it, especially when upon request, the restaurant owner provided bitter Strawberry Tree (Arbutus Unedo) honey to mix with it. In addition, it paired perfectly with tannins and texture of the Carignano del Sulcis wine.
<< Previous • 15 of 20 • Next >>
- Our Own Sideways: Index
- Piω Gusto 2009 Sideways Six Parts December 2009
- Island Sideways 2009 Five parts October 2009
- Vinitaly 09 Sideways - Four parts April 2009
- Arezzo Wine Sideways 2009 - Four parts March 2009
- Birthday Sideways 2008: Lake Tahoe & Yosemite Park - Five parts October 2008
- Vinitaly Sideways 2008 - Four parts April 2008
- European Sideways 2008 - Ten parts February 2008
- Iowa Sideways: A Quest for Wine in the Midwest - Two parts November 2007
- Southwestern Sideways: A Quest for Western US Wine Not From California - Ten parts October 2007
- Lonesome European Sideways - Sixteen parts March 2007
- Partially Aborted Sideways - Five parts October 2006
- Italian Sideways 2006 - Nineteen parts April 2006
- Our Own 'Sideways' Trip - Four parts October 2005
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