Wait, are we still in Italy? Sardegna and Pedra Longa

March 20, 2012 - March 23, 2012

The next day we finally decided to head out and really explore what Santa Maria Navarrese offered. The sky was pretty cloudy and as we walked down to the Marina, we learned that we were two weeks too early for the excursions to start. Without a car and easy public transportation we were confined to SMN and I started to worry that maybe I had chose the wrong destination for Spring Break. 

Of course, I tried to make good of the situation, but after the long days of traveling, I couldn't get out of the funk I was in. But as we continued to explore, and Austin continued to show me the great things of the town and tried to reteach me the beauty of doing nothing. Slowly, but surely my bad attitude lifted and so did the clouds. We walked up to the top of a long winding road that advertised a panoramic view of the town. It really was beautiful, and I started to see the beauty of the small town we were staying in for the next 3 or 4 nights. Good news kept coming when we continued walking behind a (possibly closed?) hostel and found a sign with the words "Pedra Longa" carved in it. Still a little tired from the day before, we decided to spend the rest of the getting more acquainted with the town and do more research on the Pedra Longa that night. 

Walking back to the house, we were greeted by a very small dog who lived next door. She ended up coming out of the house and letting us pet her each time we passed the house, and I swear by the end of it all, she wanted to come home with us. On the last day, as we were leaving, she another puppy came to wish us goodbye, and I was very close to picking her up and placing her in my pack. She was one of the friends we met during the trip (there were VERY few people in SMN, and even less who spoke any sort of english).Our second friend we met was the lady at the bread section in the super market (we have named her Pan lady); we claimed that she got excited everyday when we came into the market to clumsily in Italian ask her for bread. (And that when we left the island, she was sad to see us go...)

Anyways, on March 21, 2012...

We woke up a little later than usual, and spent the morning cooking a big breakfast fit with Pesto eggs, Hashbrowns, and the fresh oranges the owners had left us. A lazy morning led to an incredible day of hiking and sight-seeing. We decided to head back to the Pedra Longa sign and see what was behind it. I really had no expectations at all, and if I did, they were low (maybe a view point? a pretty outlook onto the water?) But I was completely blown away by the beauty that hid on top of the mountain, behind the somewhat closed hostel, and homemade gate. Every step gave a different view of spectacular beauty, and the day? It couldn't have been better weather. I soon began to realize the trip to the island of Sardinia was definitely worth (the little) money we had spent and more. The hike was a perfect mix of ups and downs, as well as rocky and grassy. It was not easy by any means, but incredibly satisfying. What was also great about the hike, was that our destination was easily visible from afar, and as we kept walking Pedra Longa slowly became larger and larger. We were the only ones on the trail for a while, until we began to hear cowbells in the distance. Slowly the noises became louder and louder, until we looked up to 2 mountain, long-haired goats peering down on us! Could this get any better?

Of course it could! The views continued to look even more photoshopped and the trail opened up to even better lookout points with incredible widescreen snapshots of the Mediterranean. We only saw two other older couples during the whole hike, and both of them seemed to be from Eastern Europe. After 2 and a half days in Sardinia, we had yet to meet any Americans or those who spoke english. It was nice to feel like we had the whole island at our disposal and by the end of the 4 days, it started to feel like we were a part of the community (besides the fact that our best friend was a dog.....)

After 4 or so miles, we started to hear the cowbells again, but this time much louder and ringing at a faster pace. Looking to our left, we discovered a goat who seemed to be running for his life. For a split second, we both thought he might actually charge us. But instead, he stopped, looked at us politely and continued on his way. Austin suggested he was just on his daily run, I thought he may have been looking for another goat. We will both never know; but after a while we did feel silly being afraid of the goats, as each time we came across them, they would politely walk off the main path and let us pass. 

We finally made it to our destination and hung out there, exploring around Pedra Longa.  here, we also learned a little history about the famous Sardinian rock formation. PL is a "pyramidal monolithic" rock (any geology majors out there?) that rises 128 meters straight out of the ground. It is made out of calcareous-dolomitic rock and dates back to the mesozoic age! Ancient sailors used to use it as a direction point of the Supramonte region. Needless to say, it was a very perfect day and to top it all off, we came home with sunburnt faces and perfectly sore legs. That night we cooked dinner (basmati rice with sauteed mushrooms and red pepper and steamed broccoli with bread and olive oil) and happily reflected over our day well spent.

 On the 22nd, we decided to make cookies for the owners (share with them, an easy american dish?). Well, it turns out my italian did not expand to the reaches of the cooking products world, so the baking powder was more like cake mix and our cookies turned into cakeies. Also, putting extra white sugar does not make up for the lack of brown sugar Italy seems to have. I ended up liking them and decided that we made some sort of very sweet type of blondie. Whatever you want to call it, all you have to do is mess up a very easy chocolate chip cookie recipe and voila! You've got cakeies! (Or really think chocolate chip pancakes, or blondies, or...) Nevertheless, we left a pile for the owners... hope they liked them! frown had definitely disappeared and I overall very much enjoyed our time in Sardinia. After, weekend after weekend of traveling to big tourist sites and not having any time to just sit down, I had grown accustomed to have jam-packed days. But in Sardinia, I was able to go back to the mindset of pure relaxation and enjoying the natural world. The last couple of days were spent hanging out on the beach, reading, and reminiscing. It really had been a perfect week so far and with last minute planning, our adventure was not over as we were off to Lucca and an Organic Agriturismo farm in Lucca on Saturday. Stay tuned.