|
February 27 Monday Bicycle touring Italy Sardinia from some bushes past Oristano and before Sili Sardinia to Sili Sardegna We had phoned Rimedia, Christine's friend, on the day of the Sartiglia and were to meet her at 5 PM by the water tower in Oristano, but we couldn't as the crowd and festival had us pinned in. Remedia's boyfriend, Raffaele, lives with his parents in Sili. When we cycled into Sili this morning, I found a phone booth and called to apologize for not being able to meet them. A friend, Iola, from Arbatax answered the phone. She and Raffaele came in his car to the phone booth and led us back to his place. We left our touring bikes there and drove to Baratili San Pietro to pick up Rimedia who lives with her parents. We met her old mom and dad and had a shot of Vernaccia, a potent wine they make in the region that is 20% alcohol content. The grapes to make Vernaccia are grown only in this area which makes Vernaccia very popular here. The distinction gives this area fame throughout the the entire island of Sardinia. We returned to Sili for lunch. Lasagna for the first course, and then meat. We were shown (finally!) how to eat artichoke leaves. Boy, there's not much too them. Dessert was like a long skinny pastry similar to a doughnut. Everything was delicious. Raffaele is a chef. Rimedia is a waitress. (Her parents are retired. Her mom is 63, but she looks 83. We saw a picture of her taken 35 years ago on a beach with the kids and she was a knockout. Now I couldn't even recognize that was remotely the same person, her facial features and body structure have changed so drastically.) Bruno, Iola's husband, and Iola are from Arbatax. They came to see the Sartiglia. They returned to Arbatax after lunch. They had brought some wonderful tasting oranges with them. Bruno modestly said they weren't any good because the orange trees were sick from too much water. About 200 of his trees died when there was a flood a couple of years ago and even the ones that survived are languishing. Bruno and Iola used to work in Canada. They invited us to visit them in Arbatax. They said we could catch a ferry from there to Genoa or Civitavecchia -- even though there has been no confirmation of that in any of the tourist info we have. Guess what? They are friends with Jean, the fellow from Siniscola who bought us a coffee, who gave us Christine's name, which gave us Rimedia, and through her boyfriend Raffaele we met his parents, whom Bruno and Iole are visiting for the weekend. So we have come full circle back to Jean. Interesting. After lunch Raff and Rimedia took us to Oristano to see the little kids on their ponies doing acrobatics. They still do three horses at a time like the adults, but, of course, the small horses don't go nearly as fast. One boy drank a carton of milk as he was racing down the course. The adults drink a bottle of wine as they gallop down the track, so this was a pint-size imitation of that. A girl took all her clothes off as she raced down the track. They even have a little person dressed up as the head person who, we are told, stays on the horse for the entire Sartiglia event which is many hours in length. We go to Baratili with Raff and Rimedia. A street dance is held in the town square. Accordion music. They teach us a Sardinian dance. The young and old mix together. Some people are dressed in Halloween-like attire, others in traditional festive costume, and others in traditional daily dress. The rest are in western style clothes. Some of us are even wearing bike clothes. The dance ends. We have spaghetti, then slices of meat that Raff prepares at Rimedia's. Dessert is a special pastry filled with cream. Mmmm. All washed down with liberal quantities of homemade wine and Vernaccia. There are several wine casks out back. Rimedia's parents have a vineyard. We meet the rest of Rimedia's family. She has four brothers, three are married, only Jay is still single. He is in construction. Around midnight we return to Raffaele's to
sleep. We stay in an upstairs bedroom that is very comfortable. |
