"Trenino Verde" trip

Patrizia taking a picture of me taking a picture of her...

Have you ever seen Hydrangeas so beautiful?....Growing in a pot????

View from the train cockpit, the train crosses Sardinia from the south at Cagliari, infact I believe one can even pick it up in Monserrato, the town were I was born, and reaches Arbatax on the East coast in the middle of island.

We are about to enter one of the many tunnels, you can see how high above sea level we are, and we keep climbing.....

Here we stopped for a five minute rest, and a chance to take pictures. That is the train, at first we were disappointed that it did not have a steam engine....by the time we returned we were so thankful that it did not because, as it was we were hot and sweaty and the added coal coating would not have helped at all!!!!

Windmills creating green renewable energy...

Majestic mountains....so beautiful and not a very common site in Sardinia!

Another stop at an old station, in the olden days people would actually buy tickets, wait for the trains, and have something to eat in these buildings. One of these doors was labeled "First Class Passenger Waiting Room"

This was the office of the caretaker of the station, the room was furnished with period furniture and quite well kept. Today there is not a caretaker, and the room is locked, the only tenants are bats which inhabit the oven; we were allowed to go inside and grandpapa woke the bats so that they flew all over the room! We have the pictures to prove it.

Lakes do not abound in Sardinia, in fact the island has suffered a drought forever, that is why a sight like this is so beautiful.

This is a so called "Casa Cantoniera", basically a caretaker's home. This one is Nurri, a family would live here and take care of their stretch of railroad plus other duties that I am not too familiar with.
On the train....smiling trough the sweat...

More beautiful than the landscapes.....Marisa's smile!!!

Drinking from one of the many, many springs in Sardinia. This is in Niala at a big "Agriturismo" restaurant, AKA a restaurant that serves dishes entirely made out of their own products, be it farming, hunting, fishing, etc...

At our destination the "trenino" left us in the middle of nowhere, gulp! ...a moment of panic, then a quick resolve to find a site where we could have a pick nick. Thanks to Tony's enterprising skills we found an "agriturismo" which allowed us to use one of their beautiful stone tables, it was so peaceful and comfortable that Tony even had a nap on the bench!