Thursday 3 October 2019

We wanted to spend more time exploring the capital of Sardinia. Yesterday we had seen buses and other vehicles doing tours of the old town and we were keen to go on the electric car. It looked like a milk float, but with seating for eight people and was small and narrow enough to go up and down the very narrow streets. The central piazza was given as the our start point, but we couldn’t find a stop there. Just as we were considering who to ask, we spotted one of the milk floats coming down the hill to the piazza. I hailed the driver and he shouted “can’t stop, go down to the harbour”. Only five minutes walk away, we found the operators. There were two cruise ships in town and we wondered if they had moved their pick up point to be convenient for the passengers.

The tour was great fun; zipping along the narrow steep streets, startling pedestrians, who’d thought the streets were just for pedestrians. We stopped at the cathedral, where there demonstrators yesterday and had a commentary of the historical buildings we were passing.

Cagliari’s Sardinia name, Casteddu, means castle. The city came under Roman rule in 238BC, when the Romans defeated the Carthaginians. It was a fortified city. It was ruled by the Vandals, after the fall of the Roman Empire and subsequently came under the Byzantine empire. It’s population waned at times, because, it is thought, that it was too vulnerable to attacks by Moorish pirates.

During the 11th century, the Republic of Pisa began to extend its political influence over the Judgedom of Cagliari. Pisa and the maritime republic of Genoa had a keen interest in Sardinia because it was a perfect strategic base for controlling the commercial routes between Italy and North Africa.

Thus, the city was fought over through the Middle Ages, then started to grow significantly in the late 1800’s. There are many grand buildings through the centre along the water front, testament to previous wealthy times. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the more modern sprawl, built up since the Second World War has not maintained it’s beauty. The wide boulevard along the central harbour, for example, is spoilt by the six or eight lanes of traffic. It is, however, one of Italy’s greenest cities, in terms of the amount of green parkland space each inhabitant has access to.

It was back to the boat to knock off some more boat jobs and relax. Steve is very pleased to have put in new seals around the three large hatches.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	400	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1453	nautical miles

Tricia (and Steve)