"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!

Trip to Sadali ...and the caves of "The Jannas" (Edited)

Waiting for the tour to the caves to start....the tension abounds....so does the sweat!!!

There are several interesting rock formations in the caves, this is one of them, it is called "The frog" and it really looks like one don't you agree?

A skeleton was found is the caves, it was a rabbit/mouse combination that apparently lived here in ancient times, the guide holds a drawing of what it might have looked like.

This formation is called "The organ" it is hollow inside and, when hit makes a musical sound.

These are the caves....Stalactites and Stalagmites...the whole kit and cabootle !!!

The caves are called "The caves of the fairies" for a good reason. As the story goes, there were once three fairies who found refuge in these caves, it was Mardi Grass time, and so they decided to make donuts. The donuts were so good and they were having such a good time frying and eating that they did not realize that Lent had started. A monk, passing by, smelled the delicious aroma of donuts and decided to look into it, discovering the wayward fairies he turned them into witches. Not very happy about the change in status, the now witches hung the monk, but the all seeing God, who would never reward a bad deed and let them go on frying and eating donuts, turned them into stone.
Naturally the story is true, and is documented by actual pictures of...


.....the fairies tuned witches turned stone, and....

.......the monk....still hanging after all these years! Poor chap.....

The trip to Sadali and the falls... (Edited)

This is Sadali, a little town in Sardinia famous for it's caves, "The caves of the Fairies " or Jannas in the local language. the town is very peaceful, an Assisi look alike, very old fashioned and quaint, and...has several B&B's believe it or not!!

Sadali was holding the "Ravioli" Feastival with demonstration and degustation of the famous ricotta and mint ravioli. Well, because of the siesta time of the promoters and the fact that supper is quite late in Sardinia...even when the whole purpose is to let the visitors TASTE the feasted food, we never tasted the famous ravioli!!!
We were rewarded with a demonstration of ravioli and gnocchi making by the cutest little ol' ladies...the one in the middle was the feistiest and out demonstrated all the others!!!!

Look who's watching very attentively.....will she be making ravioli for us soon???


Demonstration of ricotta making...the old fashioned way! It was the best tasting ricotta I ever tasted!



Sadali has some famous falls which prompted our trip to see them, actually because a long standing drought, and lack of rain in the previous months, it turned out to be not very spectacular, but we were rewarded by many quite beautiful ones throughout the town. This is one of the most spectacular.



Before visiting the falls and touring the caves, we had a real nice pick nick, wonderful forest setting...rustic rock tables...good food, and the smell of the Mediterranean brush...mmmmm!

Grandpapa teaching the kids how to hoot like a mourning dove....not a good idea! That sound from the real and the grandkids ones, tortured us all summer long!


Going down to see the falls...


..and down....

...and down...we finally got tired and three quarters of a kilometer down all the girls decided to give up. Grandpapa and Evan kept going and saw the famous falls..... actually they were more a trickle due to the drought!!!!

Our latest trips

At the bottom of this post I mentioned the beauty of the waters of Costa Rei and Villassimius, now that I have more time I will SHOW YOU how clear they really are!


Julia and Marisa frolicking, Tony, my brother in the background.

OK, is that clear or what?


Julia laying down, Evan on his tommy, and Marisa massaging his back??


Me enjoying the fresh clear waters of Santa Giusta in Costa Rei.

The grandkids....again!

We went back to Costa Rei and Villassimius this week and were glad to see that we had not dreamed the beautiful clear waters, if anything they were even more crystal clear. We also visited Chia, another beautiful beach with beautiful golden dunes. the sand was very fine and felt so good on the feet!!

Going to Costa Rei makes for a great day!!!!

Yesterday we spent the day at Costa Rei, the temps are in the 100's and the best way to keep cool is to be at the beach. We got there early and the water was beautiful, clear, calm, fresh!!!
Everybody jumped in almost immediately, and stayed in most of the day. Had a very good time, especially grandpapa who, after years of "talking" about a special beach that we had seen a long time ago, finally found it. Maybe we'll be visiting that beach next time.
The big news is that Marisa learned to swim!!!!!!
Close up on Zsolt and Julia
Zsolt, Julia, Michelle, and Tony playing ping pong
Evan and Julia playing "Racchette", ping pong, the italian favorite beach sport, it was hard at first but they became quite good at it!
The set up....all the umbrellas together to provide maximum shade, the coolers with fresh water veggies and fruits, and the best mortadella sandwiches in town! Also mostaccioli, nutella, grissini....
Ia this ideal or what!!!!!
Marisa' turtle.

Marisa looking for shells in the sand....yes you can spot them right trough the water!!!
Julia relaxing....
At day's end we visited Silvana and her family, it took us a while to find the house which is quite secluded and hiding well. It took Silvana standing in the middle of the road waiving her arms and flashing some skin, (G rated, nothing nasty!) to finally find the house. They had a nice spread ready for us, and we enjoyed the famous "Empanadas" or Sardinian savory pies., talked about the old times (Silvana and I are high school friends), hunting (Her mother is an avid hunter), and had an all around good time.
Julia, Silvana, Ginetta, Marisa, Zsolt, and Evan...good people...good times!

Looking Forward to the Weekend

Tomorrow the plan is to get the the beach early, then leave in time to have a nice dinner. Take advantage of the Siesta time, then get ready for Mass at Bonairia Church in Cagliari...

Sunday? Who knows... surely it will be a nice sunny day...

Sunday...and the living is easy

Another wonderful day in Sardinia, no clouds, no haze.......rain? What's that? A trip to Sadali awaits us... mountains, caves, good food and a local festival.
Yesterday we went to the Poetto, which used to be "the place" to go and enjoy white sands and crystal clear waters.....unfortunately now the sand is grey and the water not so clear...what a pity!
We did have lots of fun anyway, enjoyed fresh mortadella sandwiches for lunch uhm!!! Took a long walk, and found beautiful shells.

This is the Poetto, this is where I spent my summers as a child. My mother used to rent a "Casotto" for the summer, and I had the time of my life all summer long!!

The famous "Saddle of the devil" that Lucifer lost in the hasty retreat after loosing the battle with St. Michael.

The pitiful sand......