The Laaaast Melon

It’s the final countdown here in Cagliari, and everyone has been frantically trying to squeeze in way more activity than is possible to do in the few days that we have left. With the combination of school work, a few final cultural excursions, and some necessary souvenir shopping, these last days are disappearing quicker than you can imagine. 

On Friday, we had our mock town meeting, in which everyone played a different character and we all sat down and tried to come up with a solution to the issues with contamination and the resulting “Quirra Syndrome” that has been occurring in certain parts of Sardinia. We had everyone from the engineers and the activists to the shepherds and farmers and then even the mayor and some concerned parents. It turned out to be pretty interesting, especially given the topic (and the pictures of two-headed lambs).

On Saturday we went on a hike to Sella del Diavolo, which is “the Devil’s Saddle.” We went to the top and found some cool forts and things, and were able to see all of Poetto from our height- you’d think we would get sick of all these beautiful views, right?

Then, today, we went to a traditional Sardinian festival. Upon arrival, we were swarmed with people shoving wine and pastries in our hands, and after that we hung out for a while before moving on to the main attraction, which was an hour long parade of decorated tractors and horses, music, and hordes of Sardinians dressed in their fancy, homemade, traditional clothing. There were people in the beds of tractors that had transformed them into literal beds by piling mattresses on top of them and sitting above us as the procession rolled through, tossing cookies at us along the way! When the parade was over, there was music and dancing for a little bit before we boarded the bus to travel back to the guest house for the last time.

So, to anyone who may have been reading these (if there is, in fact, more than just Anna): it’s been nice blogging for you during my time here! I’m having a lot of trouble letting it sink in that this incredible place will be out of my life a few short days from now. I guess that might just mean that I will have to come back…

Ciao!

"A Little Day for a Big Swim"

The majority of this week so far has been spent at sea, and it has been fantastic! On Monday, we went on a cruise around Villasimius. We took a rather large sailboat to a couple of beaches that were great for exploring, ate a delicious lunch on board which (surprisingly) included pasta that had been cooked below decks, and jumped off the side of the boat countless times. It was great fun, despite the lightning and thunderstorms that were looming on the horizon- which made all of our hair stick up on our heads!

On Tuesday, we had presentations from a couple of guest speakers. The first was on End of Life Vehicles in Italy, which was especially interesting for me because that was the subject that my group and I had chosen for the first project, and the second presentation was about remediation of old mining sites in Sardinia.

Today was our last Wednesday in Sardinia (!) and we spent the entire day at the beach in Teurredda. Personally, I spent a lot of my beach time making tunnels in the sand with Annalisa’s kids, and was very grateful for the delicious homemade picnic food that we were given. The rest of our (final) week here will be a busy one for sure, the details of which will be explained in my final blog post on Sunday!

Beached and Ruined

After a week spent working on projects, we were given this entire weekend off to do with it what we wanted. I decided to maximize its potential. I did so by sleeping in on Saturday and then going to the beach in the afternoon with the whole gang, and then today by going on a small adventure to Pula and Nora. Pula was a relatively tourist-y town, cutely adorned with flags hanging on strings between all of the buildings and a central square where we saw a bear-sized dog. Nora, a decent walk from Pula, was the highlight of my week- it has ruins of a town that was inhabited first by Phoenicians, then by Carthaginians, and finally by the ancient Romans. We went on a small tour and saw all the ruins of the town, which included a theater, houses, baths, and a tower that we were able to climb up to and look over the ancient town that we had just walked through. Aside from the extra hour of traffic that we endured on the bus ride home, it was a fantastic day.

As far as actual work goes, on Thursday we made a visit to the Campidano Ambiente, which I am told is the Sardinian equivalent of the EPA. We heard about their door-to-door collection system, and were treated to some awesome refreshments afterwards. We also had guest speaker Giorgia De Gioannis to help us with some problems on composting. This upcoming week will be a lot of project work and preparation for the town meeting, but also a cruise tomorrow! We are closing in on the final days here, and I am ever so slightly regretting my decision to put off souvenir shopping…

Everybody look at me, cause I'm sailing on a BOAT

Yesterday was an exhausting, yet relaxing, and all the while fantastic day. We woke up at the crack of dawn (8 AM) and were transported via the trunk of a jeep to the marina right next to Poetto beach, where we split up onto three boats and sailed into the afternoon. The boat that I was on was named “Paco” and our captain, Veto, did not speak a word of English. This plot twist did not faze us in the least, however, because we had Erika to basically do everything that the six of us were supposed to without hesitation. It was a beautiful day on the water!

Today we went on a technical visit to the Villaservice plant, which consisted of waste management in the form of a landfill, composting, and anaerobic digestion. This was no exception to the tendencies of previous technical visits in that it was really smelly, and Annalisa had to explain to the engineer as he was handing us masks that “they have sensitive noses.” The facility is able to complete the cycle in that the leachate from the landfill is treated in the sewage plant to make “processed water,” which is then used to feed the anaerobic digestion. Apparently it is the only anaerobic digestion plant that receives the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, which I thought was pretty neat.

We have presentations this Friday, but the weekend will be free for us to explore (or catch up on sleep) and after that we really will only have a little more than a week left here. I’m trying not to think about it.

Viper II: Return of the Viper

In the context of Sardinian bandits, revenge is a dish best served cold. At least, this is what our wonderful tour guide, Paola (better known as “the viper”) informed us as we rode the bus to the heart of the island for an overnight stay that included museums, shepherds, some incredible graffiti, and (last but not least) a mini-cruise around the gulf of Orosei.

Our first stop was the Museo Enografico Sardo, where we saw a plethora of beautiful costumes, jewelry, and textiles from different periods of Sardinian history as well as some mannequins that depicted the Mamothone. These eerily lifelike models were dressed from head to toe in black and even had their faces obscured by masks or charcoal, which had the added effect of making us unsure of whether or not one of them was actually a real person who would scare us all half to death at any second…

From the museum, we went to the beautiful Church of Solitude, which is where Sardinia’s most famous writer is buried, and walked around a bit before moving on to the main event of the day: lunch with the Shepherds. Here, we sat on logs and ate copious amounts of food, drank wine (which is rumored to be what makes Sardinians live so much longer than the average human) and enjoyed some song and dance with the shepherds as well as another even bigger group of surprisingly drunk and surprisingly old tourists.

From lunch we moved on to our abode for the night, which was situated in the mountains and took about a million narrow, windy, uphill turns to get to. We went on a hike and enjoyed the view from the highest point that we could get to, and arrived at dinner sweaty and ravenous. We ate rabbit (!) among other fantastic foods, and then went out on the deck and looked at the stars and all of the scenery- a great capper to a great day.

On Saturday, we spent the day on a “mini-cruise” of the Gulf of Orosei which included some incredible stops. The first of these was the cave of monk seals, which, contrary to its (rather misleading) name, hosted no seals but did make for an incredible detour. After spelunking, we went to two different yet equally beautiful beaches which were home to water that was so blue it looked like kool-aid. It made for a great day, and both the boat and bus rides back had a lot of satisfied, sunburnt, sleeping Americans.

Landfill

After a weekend of adventures, we came back on Monday and got right down to business, with a morning spent listening to a guest speaker and an afternoon of presentations.

On Tuesday we boarded the bus (actually on time today) and headed off to the Ecoserdiana landfill to learn about how the Sardinians bury their trash. No hard hats this time- in fact, we barely even left the bus. Nonetheless, it was an interesting venture. We were tossed back and forth on the bumpy road that went along the edge of the landfill as we heard about some of the things that happen on that site. We got out and stood behind a flimsy orange fence that had been laid out in anticipation of our arrival, taking it all in. Then we went inside the control room and walked around outside to take a look at the solar farm which happens to be another source of energy for the company.

Some notable things about this landfill: they used to accept municipal solid waste, but no longer have the permit for it and therefore only fill their landfills with designated waste! This includes both hazardous and industrial, as well as ash leftovers from the incinerator. They also had a comprehensive leachate and biogas collection system, which I found very interesting, especially having never seen a landfill before.

My afternoon was spent exploring, eating, and napping with a book on my nose, which is quickly turning out to be the usual here. Not that I mind. 

From Farmer's Market to Farm

In short, I have found my future home on a farm in Sardinia.

On Thursday, we went to Mercato San Benedetto, which is the largest covered fish market in Europe, but had vendors selling just about anything you could possibly want from a farmer’s market. Vegetables, fruits, coffee, cheese, wine, bread, pastries…and everything incredibly fresh.  I bought an almond macaroon and walked around in wonder for what was probably over an hour. It was definitely worth it.

For the weekend we traveled along some precariously narrow, windy, and minimally guard-railed roads to the west coast of Sardinia and hit a few tourist stops. We went to an ancient Roman style temple and posed like boy bands while our new tour guide, also named Paula, told us enough history facts to make our heads spin. We also went on a tour of the mines in Sardinia which included another set of matching hard hats and mannequins for a more “realistic” effect that mostly just turned out to be creepy. After walking through the dark and learning about old Sardinian mining practices, it opened up to a beautiful lookout onto the Mediterranean, and the water was so clear and blue that we could see straight through to all of the rocks on the bottom.

The pinnacle of the week, however, was the place where we stayed on Saturday night. Sa Perda Mercada, which was a beautiful bed and breakfast located on a farm, welcomed us with a feast of farm fresh food for dinner, a lot of land for running around and exploring, and a puppy! After a cozy sleep we woke up and enjoyed a cooking lesson in which we made pasta and, for dessert, a fried pastry adorned with cheese, lemon zest, and honey. After eating our creations until we were about to explode, we had some time to hang out, relax, and play with the owner’s kid and puppy until we left for the dunes.

Now back at the guest house in Cagliari, I can’t stop thinking about what a wonderful weekend it was, and every day am getting more and more excited to be here...