Friday 15 September

We left a quiet Nuoro at 08.45 to travel to Oristano (about an hour) first to leave our luggage with the helpful Davide at Locanda da Renzo, in Siamaggiore, and then to visit La Cantina della Vernaccia at 10.30. The journey went smoothly, and the Locanda is a good example of a traditional out of town ristorante (seats 300!) onto which rooms, a pool, and a tennis court have been added over the years.

We drove on to La Cantina to meet Federika. It is a traditional Cantina Sociale without anything other than functional charm – though a makeover is proposed to increase its appeal and to enhance hospitality. She gave us a comprehensive tasting, and we benefitted from nearly two hours with the enologist; a young, rather earnest man whose info David really valued. 

Federika gave us several recommendations for lunch; we opted for Craf di Banana in the centre of Oristano where the parking even on blue lines is free at lunch times. The ristorante, on the street below, was of long-standing with excellent and distinctive food. 

We sauntered back to the Piazza Roma to admire the thirteenth century Torre, where I had a short doze on a bench, before setting off for our appointment at 16.30 at Attillo Contini in Cabras with Carla, a young, highly educated Sardinian who we learned later had spent April 2016 in Lancaster and the Lake District, and was a devotee of Wordsworth and had even visited Dove Cottage! 

Contini are in the process of re-inventing their image, having heavily invested in a striking new tasting area, alongside the extraordinary cantina full of very old barrels and very old Venaccia, aged for decades under the ‘veil of flor’ as the label tells us.

There were poignant reproductions of old family photos (the youngest, boldest child is Attillo himself), and relics of the once common rush boats which were used to fish the stangna for the few hours they remained afloat, before needing to be dried out in the hot Sardinian sun. There was also a reproduction of a kind of singing stone, more of which we would both hear, and hear about, later in the week. (See Sardinia 3!)

While I was enjoying Carla’s literary and history interests, David was struggling with his irritation and disappointment that the requests for technical visits have been frequently ignored, in the companies’ rush to major on ‘hospitality’.

We returned to Siamaggiore (once we had found the car in the maze of tiny streets behind Contini – the street name ‘via Tempio’ fortunately sprung to mind just as we were losing the will to live!) and decided to return to eat at the Locanda. 

There followed several minor but none the less irritating episodes: a flat refusal by the waiter at Locanda da Renzo to countenance tap water as safe, and the general desire to speak in English; very expensive if ordinary dishes, and a confusion over wine. The frustration and tiredness (another long drawn out dinner) undermined us both. The meal itself was redeemed by a large bowl of raw vegetables provided at our request as a starter, and a perfectly good ravioli with ricotta and thyme. After a bit of a wrangle, we went to bed. 

Saturday 16 September 

We had a day to ourselves ! But a hot one which even the locals lamented. Temperatures in September should be lower… Breakfast was promising; lots of fruit, eggs, some local cheese, served by cheerful Davide and in the company of little one year old Eleanora enjoying undiluted parental attention. David briefly walked; I swam in the surprisingly large and practical pool. 

We headed for lunch in Oristano  – ristorante Salvatore, another of Federika’s ideas, and after a very relaxed, very italian pranzo with plenty of chatter, we headed in the oppressive heat across a few squares to the Museo Archeologico where the air conditioning upstairs was wonderful, equipped with convenient loos, and only four of us in total all afternoon. 

We were nervous of another long evening in the big dining room of the Locanda but realising that any local ristorante cena could be equally protracted, we negotiated successfully for a quick light supper – more vegetables and ravioli and a single glass of wine, followed by an enjoyable early night! 

Sunday 17 September

Today is forecast to be very hot, and possibly thundery. Our next destination, Hotel Lu, near Porto Pino in Sulchis, the SW corner of the isle is 134 km away, so we breakfasted, said our farewells, and left c 10.15. David drove the big busier and certainly faster main road, until we turned off this dual carriageway for the SP 293. After a coffee stop, I drove the windy route between great outcrops of rocks, through cultivated landscapes, lower and much less menacing, arriving at 12.35 to be greeted warmly by the receptionist, and up-graded from comfort to deluxe. The air con worked well! 

Lunch was in their lovely functional large dining room – a waiter entirely to ourselves!

David followed the Chelsea v Bournemouth match at 15.00 – not a great game – while I caught up with this, punctuated with a few too many visits to the loo. We went out at 18.00 for a tootle around the stagna (ponds or small lagoons) towards Porto Pino and on to the very end of the little promontory which was clothed in small pines and shrubs but which gave us few clues about its popularity. The ristorante at the end of our slow white road drive was seriously closed and any sea or sun seekers had long gone home. We stopped briefly at the beach close to where we were to have lunch the next day: il Peschiere…

We returned for a very good hotel supper, though the temperature was still very high, and the humidity rose as thunderstorms threaten. We had the company of the triumphant electric monster vehicle team and its driver whose competition had taken them all over the world. It was probably some of this group whose noise we heard all too clearly at 02.00 next morning – though at breakfast most of them looked in one piece. 

Monday 18 September

Next stop: Cantina Mesa, a few kilometres away, then Cantina Santadi followed by a drive to Decimomannu near Cagliari in the south…. Head for the account of our last four days: Sardinia 3