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...

Let's Get Trashed

Over the course of the week, we were instructed to take pictures of different waste receptacles throughout the city. Below are my findings:

An average trash can

A variety of waste bins (in a busy location)

American Beach! (waste bin with a view)

The lovely Danielle demonstrating for us how to properly dispose of your trash

The insane amount of waste that was found at the waste to energy plant in Cagliari, with the claw looming in the background...

A smaller trash can, which seems to be common

A MUCH smaller trash can (found in between the seats on the bus)

In general, Cagliari seems to have a good system, with a variety of differently colored bins so that waste can be properly separated. I've noticed that at the university there do not seem to be many recycling bins. However, it is possible that I haven't been looking hard enough...

Field Trip!

Today we spent the entire day learning first-hand about some of the processes that Cagliari uses to deal with waste. We toured three different plants, each with a new host of smells for us to endure.

The first stop was a paper recycling plant. This one was the biggest on the island, accounting for half of Sardinia’s paper waste (36,000 tons per year!) and one of the only plants that recycles and produces paper in addition to collecting it. With our matching green hard hats, the group walked through the plant and was able to see the process which included separating the paper, adding water to it to form a pulp, cleaning out contaminants, pressing it with a roller, and drying it so that it can become products like grocery bags and notebooks.

After a nice lunch by the beach, we trucked on to the second stop: a composting plant. In addition to finding (and nearly snatching) a friendly dog, we watched an informative video and walked around the plant. I was surprised to hear that the composting process actually costs the plant more money than they sell the final product for- 120 euro per ton goes into making the process, and they only sell it for 2! Apparently it costs a lot of money to separate the waste. The plant receives both food and yard waste, which is mixed into a 70/30 composition and then goes through various periods of maturation before it can be tested in the lab and then finally sent off.

The final attraction was a waste-to-energy plant, which revolved around an incinerator. We were told that this plant was one of the more advanced ones in Europe, as it treats three different types of waste- industrial, solid and hazardous. The process for industrial waste was different to the other two as it required much higher temperatures (1300 Celsius, which is a whopping 2372 degrees Fahrenheit). 95% of the steam that is generated is used to generate electricity!

We’ve also been tracking the various means of collecting waste around the city; pictures of this will be posted in the near future!

So Far, So Good

We’ve been here for three days now, but it hardly feels like that because everything has been such a blur. It’s going to be a pretty busy month though, so I suppose I’ll have to get used to that feeling. In these three days, I’ve already been stuffed with so much Italian food that I have no idea what to expect at the end of this trip. I might come back to the US a hundred pounds heavier. I might even come back a wine snob (but I doubt that).

Even though we live in the city, today we were able to travel out to Barumini and see an area of Sardinia that is much more rural. Accompanied by our archaeologist tour guide and translator, we went to some of the Nuraghe, which are ancient structures that are scattered across Sardinia. I had read about these before coming here so I was pretty interested to see one up close and personal. It consisted of a lot of spider webs and some extremely steep, narrow stairs, but all in all was pretty neat.

We then picked up a second tour guide, who brought us on a hike where we could see these miniature horses that are indigenous to Sardinia. There are only 700 of them left on the planet, and all of them are running around on this island. We also saw about a million sheep, which, theoretically, is only one-fourth of the sheep population on this island- as it turns out, sheep outnumber people 5:1.

Tomorrow we start class, which will be interesting but (maybe) a little more boring than what we have been spending our time doing so far. Personally, I’d like to go back to the beach, but I really can’t complain, considering I am where I am…

Goodbye, USA

Today is the day! It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I am about to spend six weeks all the way over in Europe. It probably won’t hit me until I’ve been there for a week.

As far as expectations and preconceived notions of Italy, I don’t have much to go on. I only hope that they are forgiving of Americans like myself who know five words in Italian and, even then, are hesitant to say them for fear of completely butchering the pronunciation.

One of the aspects of Italian culture that I am most excited about is (of course) the food (and drink). I would like to try just about everything but am also concerned that I will have no idea how to read menus in Italian. I think that the policy I am going to adopt will be to learn the Italian phrase for “the same” and hope that I am never the first to order. We’ll see how that goes.

In general, the idea of spending an extended period of time in a place that is completely foreign to me is terrifying. The language barrier is what concerns me the most so it will be nice to have someone there who actually knows what they are saying. But, despite my lack of knowledge of Italian customs and language, I am still hoping that if I keep an open mind I will leave that country having learned a good deal about life there, and with some great experiences as well.