Caio, Sardinia!

So, if you can’t guess from the title, I have been to Italy and back in the past week (well now it’s been two since it’s taken me so long to post this)! I’ll start my post off by telling about my “travels”, you could call them, from London to Bonorva.

After I finished my last blog post on Tuesday the 23rd, I cut the procrastination and finished packing my suitcase by midnight, leaving me just enough time for a nap (in my standards) before I had to catch the 3:13am night bus to Heathrow International Airport. As my parents know very well, I have a tendancy to sleep through my alarm, no matter how loud it is or how many times it goes off, leading me to be so paranioed I would sleep through it and miss the bus that I slept like crap. After close to 3 hours of “sleep”, I gathered my things and took off down the street for the bus stop and continue on my way to Heathrow. After getting on a second bus and arriving at the correct terminal, my 7:25am flight took off for Milan, where I had a two hour layover, and then another flight to Cagliari,  Sardinia. From there I got on a bus to the train station and then took a two hour train ride where Maddy met me for my long awaited arrival in Bonorva!

PS when given the choice between Ryanair and Alitalia, choose the later! I couldn’t help but laugh when I stepped onto the plane and they were playing Italian opera throughout boarding.

The blue line maps out the drive, but I just wanted to give you an idea of the distance on the map

Welcome to the town of Bonorva!

A view of the whole town from the hillside

Maddy and I 🙂

Maddy has been living with her host family in Bonorva for seven months now as an exchange student, and I can’t express enough how brave I think it is of her! Moving away from home and learning Italian from scratch, yeah I’m impressed!

Thursday, Maddy and I met up with two other exchange students and spent the day in city of Sassari, an hour and a half train ride north of Bonorva.

Maggie, Maddy, myself and Saara

the Piazza in Sassari

only the finest Italian pizza for lunch

the beach!

Sardinian beer

Friday after lunch, Maddy’s host mom and sister, Lucia and Fabiola, took us around the countryside of Bonorva to see the main historical and tourist spots. Our first stop was one of the “pyramids” from the Nuragic period. Yeah, I know, what the heck is Nuragic? Well, it was a civilization of Sardinia from 18th century BC to 2nd century AD, practically Stone Age stuff! The buildings were tower fortresses, and some 7,000 are still standing across the Sardinian landscape.

Me, Fabi (on her tip-toes) and Maddy infront of the pyramid

stairs inside the tower

hallway inside the tower

view from the top of the tower

gotta rep Chico State, it is, after all, how we’re “related”!

God sisters in Italy~ never would have thought that we would end up here!

self timers are the best!

I present you with my Rese Nose picture in Sardinia! Thank you mom and dad for paying for my plane ticket!

Our second stop was the parish church of Nativita de Maria, a Gothic- Catalan style church that dates back to 1582.

inside the church

in the courtyard garden used by the monks that live there

cute Italian villages

so many sheep!

The next attraction was Tomba del Capo, one of the main attractions in Sardinia. Alongside these tombs, there is a natural rock structure that appears to be a headless bull (I can’t seem to find the name of it) so of course we took pictures with it!

do you see the bull amongst the rock?

waiting outside the main tomb at Tomba del Capo

learning Italian hand gestures while talking

Once inside the tomb, a tour guide told told us all about the history in Italian, and then Fabi translated it to English for me (Fabiola has previously been an exchange student in Iceland, and is now fluent in English). Unfortunately, pictures are not permitted inside the tomb, so I don’t have anything to show you, but I can tell you what I remember! There are about 20 tombs excavated into the side of a rocky plateau that date back to 3200 and 2800 BC. Most of the tombs consist of one cell, but a few, like Tomba del Capo, consist of a labyrinth of 18 rooms which are connected by two main rooms. As well as a tomb for those who had passed away, the main rooms were also used as a place of worship for Christians. People would lay offers and perform sacrifices to important members that had passed, and even slept in there to get in touch with ancestors. No offense to them, but sleeping in a dark cave surrounded by chambers overflowing with dead bodies does not sound appealing in any way, but to each their own!

Saturday Maddy and her host family had a rotary lunch to attend, so we headed back out to the countryside for a traditional Sardinian meal and lots of Italian singing!

Maddy and Fabiola

Maddy and Lucia

Fabi and I

Rotary board members belting out Italian opera

While in Italy, it’s basically a requirement to eat three things: gelato, pasta and pizza. Although I don’t have a picture of pasta, I can promise you I ate if for practically every meal other then breakfast.

pizza for dinner on Monday

Sunday was a lazy day and we just hung around the house and watched movies, Monday Maddy had school until 3 and then we went out and got postcards and hung out on top of the hill that overlooks the town, and ended the day with Italian pizza and Sardinian beer.

using a cookie box to ward off the rain that caught up on the hillside

Tuesday we were up bright and early to pack my stuff, clean the guest room, and then take off for the train to Cagliari. It was a sad day, going to the airport to fly back to London 😦

Cagliari from the plane during takeoff

I am so happy I went to Sardinia to visit Maddy, we’ve grown so much closer and  I can’t wait till she gets home in July!

Caio for now,

Michelle