our sunset 1 hour ferry cruise went fast. took some sun set pics and reached Sardinia after dark. we had a fun 2 hour drive on the never ending curvy roads to Sassari,
Hotel pegasus is not the greatest of hotels , decent, except terrible wifi. come morning with bread butter and honey and then off we went to explore the north west.
we started with Aleghro , found parking and an open tourist info. the professional person there gave us lots of maps on the city, the area, the county , the voting by area map, list of open restaurants in the old city offering local cuisine, map of sewage lines and other valued maps. by his advice we left the city and headed for neptune caves- or nettuno as is known here. 30 minutes of pretty coastal drive led to the edge of a peninsula. where a guide was ready to take us down the 654 steps. the way down was easy... the cave of wonders was nice, not breath taking if you sees more then a few stalagmites caves but not bad. the local guide gave me tips on this area. now it was time to go back up, that took a little while...
we drove back after a stop for a little bit of cliff climbing and a stop in one of the many very round turrets that are scattered here on hill tops and bay edges. defensive posts. the peninsula and the sea create many photo moments. we returned to Aleghro and stopped for lunch.
for me gnucci is a small past dish and i ordered Sardi gnucci and carbonara. the carbonara was good, but the gnucci here is basically pasta shaped like sea shells with tomato sauce, and i kind of left it alone. the waitress explained that in Italy the gnucci is potato based but here (in the other country) in sardinia, it is a type of pasta. live and learn.
now we split up, i went for a historic old town stroll. I began on the out side walls of the medieval city, seeing towers, trebuchet, catapult and cannons facing the sea. the rocks on the sea side creating a natural defense well before the massive walls. this must have been a well defended place. but the island did change hands several times in it history. Catalonians. Genoas , Italians and now tourists.
unlike what the tourist info guy informed us. all restaurants in the old center were closed. in my wondering, i came across a gelateria anddecided to sample the local flavor. i tried Fundenta and this chocolate was bitter. as you know, i prefer the pure real chocolate that is milk chocolate.... it was still good, but not what i was looking for. hence kept wondering the old city with its narrow passageways, passing an incredible amount of churches in a tiny area. and then found another gelateria. this time i would outsmart them and ordered chocolata... which was bitter...
i met back with the gang who used the time to sit still in the sunny wifi. we drove north passing lush green hills, sheep and a glorious sunlight towards tistino. where one of the better beaches is found. i loved this drive with its many shades of green.
as we approached the shore we both had an ahh moment. the shallow waters were in various shades of blue, just amazing. the long sandy beach, with rock formations behind it , the bay, the big island just perhaps 300 meters across the channel and the smaller island with the big turret all combined to a beautiful place. we walked a bit on the beach
the warm sun was fighting a cool northern breeze and I debated myself weather to go in for a dip. It took a while for me to convince myself to be stupid. usually it doesn't take me this long. I walked in for a while, the waters here are very shallow and you walk a while and the water is below knee high. the darker blue where it is deep is clearly well ahead. slowly the water pass my knees and i keep going, but it is windy. and at middle height i decide to just dive in. refreshing and cold, i go back dry and change. i look at the map later and find that there is no local sea name here, just the med sea.
in the evening news it was reported that beached whales were spotted on northern Sardinia.
we passed port town of port torres on our way back to Sassari. this sentence is already enough description about this town.
in Sassai, i went to shower while they shopped and later we all headed for old town Sassari. we parked in the middle of a piazza as the locals do, just under a sign saying no parking anywhere in the piazza. we passed the cathedral and walked the nicely lit old town streets and reach the main attraction. a Zara store where Shay spent a while and we were in the small square listening to a street artist. we kept going to the main city square. a big pretty plazza with a palace and fancy buildings all around.
we stopped for dinner and here they had Italian style Gnucci. it was salty and delicious, best meal of the trip.
we wondered a bit on the way back to the car and returned for night night.
this morning at pegasus hotel lobby, we drive south towards Cagliari
cheers
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