Olbia, Sardina

Monday we turned our rental car in at Olbia airport. I meant to say a little bit about the car in yesterday’s post but I forgot to. So I’ll let Duke tell you about it now.

Our Fiat Panda

Tuesday we took an overnight ferry from Sardina to mainland Italy. So we spent the day exploring Olbia and killing time. We checked out of our B and B at eleven and stored our suitcases. We walked all around town and out to the ferry terminal to check things out.

Olbia

We had a two hour pizza lunch and then visited the local archaeological museum.

Remains of a Roman ship burned by the Vandals when they invaded Olbia.
Our ferry

We sat on a park bench and read for a couple of hours and then had pasta for dinner before retrieving our bags, walking back to the ferry terminal, going aboard and settling into our cabin. All in all a successful day. My watch says we walked a total of 8.5 miles!

On the way to the ferry
Our room on the ferry.

Now it’s 11 pm and our ferry is pulling away from Sardinia.

Dolceluna, Muravera to Olbia

Today was quite a long day of driving. We drove all the way up the east coast of Sardinia. We needed to return the car by 3:30 so only stopped briefly along the way to stretch.

After we had been driving about an hour I saw a garden store and suggested we stop there to browse and stretch our legs. OMG the colors, the orchids and the cacti. It was spectacular.

Orchids
Cacti
Color

The other highlight of the drive was the stunning mountains we drove through. The granite, gorges and heights reminded me a bit of the California Sierras.

Mountains south of Olbia.

We had aperitifs and a snack soon after we arrived.

Aperitifs

For dinner Duke had spaghetti with clams and tomatoes.

Duke’s spaghetti

I had Culurgiones Ogliastrino, filled pasta with cheese, potatoes and mint sautéed with smoked swordfish butter and wine.

My pasta

We always trade dishes half way through so I can report that both were very good.

Desert was a chocolate sphere filled with ice cream and topped with wild berries

Bosa to the coast south of Muravera

As we were leaving Bosa this morning we went down to the Bosa Port.

In July and August of this year Sardina had some huge wildfires. Today we drove through one of the areas that burned. It went on for miles.

Land burned by wildfires
You can see where the wildfires burned.

We spent the night in a wonderful agriturismo. We had a kitchen so on the way we stopped to buy supplies for dinner.

Cheese
Supplies to make dinner

At Agroturismo Dulceluna we had our own beautiful little hut with a view of the ocean.

The view from the front door
Our hut
Our kitchen.

. We went down to the beach.

Duke on the beach

Did laundry.

Bathroom with washing machine.
Drying the laundry.

And had a great dinner.

Tortellini
Dinner

Golfo Aranci to Bosa

Today was an uneventful day. We drove west and a bit south from the eastern coast of Sardinia to the western coast of Sardinia.

We started seeing cork production almost immediately. I don’t know what the proper word is for the mill we saw. When I see logs piled up I think sawmill so maybe when I see cork bark piled up in giant stacks it’s a corkmill?

We also saw lots and lots of trees that had their bark harvested and at least one truck hauling cork bark. In Portugal a few years ago we were told that they can harvest cork from a tree once every seven years.

A tree whose cork bark has been harvested
Cork

In Bosa we checked into our hotel and went for a walk.

Bosa from our hotel balcony
Bosa
Bosa

The restaurant where we ate dinner was packed, I suppose because it was Saturday night. I think most of the patrons were locals. It was fun to watch all the animated conversations and listen to all the Italian being spoken around us as people greeted each other and caught up.

Shrimp, onion and melon salad
Fregola pasta with seafood sauce.
Almond ice cream with caramel sauce

Sartène, Corisca, France to Golfo Aranci, Sardinia, Italy

It’s been a long day but we made it to a beautiful beachfront hotel on the northeastern coast of Sardina.

We took the ferry from Corsica to Sardina

We left our hotel at 7 am this morning and drove about an hour to the Figari South Corsica airport where we returned our rental car. Figari is a tiny airport and there weren’t any taxis because the next flight wasn’t scheduled for about 3 hours.

Our ferry wasn’t going to leave nearby Bonifacio until 1 so we decided to just hang around the airport for a while. Eventually a taxi showed up and we went into Bonifacio. It’s a gorgeous little town named after Bonifacio II of Tuscany who captured Corsica from the Satacens in 828. His citadel overlooks the town.

We found a restaurant and had some breakfast while we enjoyed the sun.

Breakfast in Bonifacio
Walking around Bonifacio
The Bonifacio Citadel

We walked around the town for a bit before eventually getting on the ferry. The ride from Corsica to Sardina only took an hour.

Duke adn I on the Ferry

The taxi ride from the ferry terminal to Olivia airport where we were going to rent our next car took about another hour. Luckily we were able to share the ride with one other lady so we were able to split the €90 fare three ways. Our new rental car is distinctive, cute, and small. Duke says the car has a lot of zip for a 1.2 liter engine.

Our Sardinia rental car.

We drove about thirty minutes from Olivia airport to the beach where we are tonight.

For dinner we had a wonderful Italian meal with a very entertaining waiter. He thought Duke was French! And he even taught us some Italian.

Baby octopus in a crust the waiter opened at the table.
Home made pasta with mussels
Cannelloni
Tiramisu
La Taverna del Lupo di Mare where we ate.