Reviews of Spain

I should warn you: this is the longest opinion I’ve written so far. A double espresso beside your computer might help you to get through the reading. Not a cup of tea, we’re going to coffee country! In case you think of going to Sardinia or any other Italian region one day, forget about tea altogether. Only a masochist would order tea in an Italian bar (as only an Italian masochist would order coffee in a British establishment, so there). When you offer tea to an Italian, you might hear, 'No, thank you, I’m fine.' Italians drink tea, black or the herbal variety, when they feel unwell, it’s medicine for them.

Now, have you got your coffee ready? Off we go.

HOW TO GET THERE

The majority of German tourists go to Sardinia by car and ferry, the majority of British tourists go there by plane. Ah, yes, of course, I hear you saying, the distance! No, that's not the main reason. Not all Germans live in the south, in fact the most densely populated region in Germany is the Ruhr valley which is on the same latitude as the south of England. Look at the map, it's true!

Germans started to discover Sardinia as individual tourists, they got to know Sardinians who had emigrated to Germany, made friends with them and decided to see their home region (that‘s what happened to yours truly). The Sardinians helped them to find accommodation and so they 'spread' all over the island. Up to today there is no 'German' part where they are concentrated. The reason why you find many Germans everywhere you go is that we are the most numerous people in Europe! 80 million! And the Germans are the world champions when it comes to travelling.

It made me very angry when I read in an op about Sardinia to avoid beaches with crowds of Krauts (my words, but that is what the writer meant). I avoid my countryfolks myself when abroad, my Italian husband looks and listens the other way when he meets Italians outside Italy, a Dane advised me never to set foot on the 'Danish' beach in Mallorca, the long and short of it is: crowds of anybodies are to be avoided when not in their home countries! If you really enjoy the 'British beaches' in, say, Tenerife, then MY Sardinia is not for you.

Flying there is still very expensive for us, so only people who have a lot of money do that and then stay in holiday resorts near the airports.

British tourists discovered Sardinia much later, to be precise when charter flights were organized to Alghero in the north west of the island. The Sardinians are quite happy about that, I’ve heard, because the British prefer late spring/early summer when Italian tourists don't come yet, so they help to prolong the season. As they don’t come by car they stay mainly in the area round Alghero which can be said to be in British hands.

But now you’ve got cheap flights! We envy you! The air fare is so cheap that you should consider renting a car and discover the island. After reading this you’ll hopefully be convinced that it’s worth while.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN SARDINIA

The first time I was in Sardinia was in 1965 (maybe most of the readers of this weren't born then yet!), I've witnessed the transformation of Sardinia from a white spot on the map of tourism to the most sought after holiday region of Italy. In 1998 the tourist industry in Sardinia had the highest growth rate of all Italian regions, last year the boom continued and this year won't be different.

I got to know an Italian student from Sardinia when I studied in Heidelberg. When he had gone home in summer I decided to visit him there. I stayed with him and his family on the beach in a hut made of bamboo, wood and cardboard. The winegrowers have nothing to do on their fields before the vintage in September, so they put up those 'baracche', all in all there were about twenty. They transported some furniture, kitchen things and beds in vans to the beach, and then the families lived there for some weeks. The children played in the sand and in the water, the mothers watched them, sitting far up on the beach, or chatted in front of the huts like the men, sitting on chairs, never in the sand, and with their backs to the water!

The Sardinians don’t love the water; since the beginning of time all evil has always come across the sea, and even nowadays many people can’t swim. Only the youngsters go into the water, but most of them can't swim well, it’s more splashing around than swimming. Swimming isn't taught in school, either. The ferries, the diving for corals, fishing - all that is operated or done by continentals, mostly people from Naples. The Sardinians call the mainland 'continent' and their fellow Italians 'continentals'.

You can buy fish in Sardinia now, there are also restaurants where you can eat fish, even excellent ones, but fish isn’t typical for Sardinia, at least not for the interior. The Sardinians are meat eaters, the specialities being: sucking pig, lamb, kid, preferably roasted on a skewer over an open fire.

I know what the expression 'Sticking out like a sore thumb' means! During my first visit I was the only foreigner on a beach which is about 3 miles long, I'm blond, have fair skin and am a lot taller than the men and women of my age group, and then I was the only one to wear a bikini!

The men occasionally ventured a little swim, for the women a pole had been rammed into the sand with a rope tied to it. After crossing themselves and looking to heaven, they worked their way along it into the water, that is 2-3 m, fully dressed! Then they lay on rocks for a while waiting for their clothes to dry, and as the salt water made the cloth stiff they went back to their huts as if they were wearing crinolines.

After that time camping reached Sardinia; as tents were very expensive in those days, it was considered a little luxury. The first 'continentals' discovered Sardinia, a region they didn’t really know anything about. They had learnt in school that it was one of the Italian regions, but that was it, more or less.

Meanwhile the north of Sardinia, the Costa Smeralda (because of the emerald colour of the water) developed into one of the top regions of international top tourism. Marbella, the Caribbean, Costa Smeralda, the jet set has to go somewhere, hasn't it? I don’t want to go into details here, although the transformation of the formerly wild coast where only some forlorn sheep used to graze into highly elegant, artificial holiday resorts with artificial harbours for yachts and ships is quite interesting, especially the question in how far - or if at all - the Sardinians profited from it. But I suppose that the readers of this op are not into hols in which one night costs 1000 pounds and more (yes, one thousand)!

The camping sites remained, but 'wild' camping was forbidden. The Sardinians gained a bit more prosperity and started turning the sheds and small houses they had on their fields for the storage of tools, manure etc. into real houses in which they, and also some tourists, could stay during the summer months. When you go to Sardinia now, you can see new houses everywhere, already or nearly finished. You can also find holiday clubs, a main building with the restaurant and small houses for the guests around. Of course, there are hotels, too, but in all Sardinia you can’t find a really tall building. I guess that on the whole island there are no more beds for tourists than in, say, Torremolinos, Spain. Everything is kind of low scale and will stay like that, at least in the near future (and hopefully forever).

WHO SHOULD GO THERE?

Who would I advise to go to Sardinia? Families with small children! The beaches are so wonderful, the water is so clean and warm that they won’t want to leave. Sometimes I'm asked if it is already possible to go swimming at Easter. Funny question! If you’ve survived swimming in the North Sea in summer, you can very well swim in Sardinia at Easter, probably the water is even warmer there then.

Divers have told me that Sardinia offers no great attractions for them, but surfers are extremely happy on the north coast between Sardinia and Corsica.

A word about the beaches: although more and more tourists come, it must be said that many beaches have neither toilets nor showers. If you're lucky you’ll find a bar with some kind of loo - this side of beach tourism isn't the nicest.

If you belong to the fun generation and see life as a party, you should NOT go to Sardinia! To be sure, there are some discos, but this is ring-a-ring-o-roses compared to what is going on in Rimini and other resorts on the Adriatic coast. Rimini means party and party means Rimini. But not only for the young ones: very early in the morning old age pensioners enter the beach and tango! I'd love to see that, it’s very Felliniesque. (By the way, Fellini was from Rimini.)

During the last years a new kind of tourism has sprung up which attracts individuals who look for something genuine and out of the way. The beach season is concentrated on July and August, and thats not long enough. Jobs are scarce in Sardinia, and unemployment is a big problem. Many people still emigrate, but not all want to do so. Some young Sardinians have thought of new projects to attract tourists outside the peak season, and it seems that they’ve struck on something really good. More and more tourists come in spring and autumn to get to know the interior. You can explore caves, climb mountains, go on hiking tours on horseback or on foot. But if you can't read a compass, beware! The interior is really wild, no footpaths there like you know from home! You can follow the paths made by the shepherds and their sheep if you find them, if not, then you’re on your own. You can study the Mediterranean flora and fauna, meet wild boar and wild sheep. Many Sardinians remember a Scotsman who used to come and study a special kind of lizard only to be found there.

I'd prefer spring to autumn, because then the vegetation is still fresh and green, in autumn the dominant colours are yellow and brown, everything is dry or burnt. Sardinia has more and more regions which are turning into steppe, during the last two years it has hardly rained, the reservoirs are nearly empty, and water is rationed even during the winter, that means there is no water from late afternoon up to the following morning! People can only get along with the help of water containers on the roofs of their houses which are filled during the hours when the water is running.

Do tourists have to take a shower three times a day? Must the jet set have golf courses? Then there are the horrible forest fires, every summer, raging for days. Some, very few, are caused by the proverbial cigarette butt thrown out of a car, more by acts of vendetta among the shepherds, maybe even more by land speculators. The idea to pay a reward for each fire which has been detected and is reported has certainly not helped to reduce the number, on the contrary!

If you’re interested in history, you can study the culture of the 'nuraghi', conical buildings, whose function hasn’t been cleared up yet, then there are giants tombs, houses of fairies and dolmen, all belonging to the bronze age. Don’t miss the Archeological Museum in Cagliari!

What you won’t find is the refined urban culture mainland Italy is famous for, no Gothic Siena, no Renaissance Florence, no baroque Rome in Sardinia. Tourists don’t go to Sardinia to admire architecture.

WHAT ARE THE SARDINIANS LIKE?

Everything is relative. Compared to your and my countryfolks they are full of temperament, compared to the continental Italians they’re quiet and reserved. Some women might like this, others might feel disappointed. They should go to Sicily where they can be sure to attract attention! Geographically speaking the Sardinians belong to the 'meridionali' (Southerners), but they are never subsumed, always referred to what they are: 'Sardinians'. If you know Italian you’ll be able to understand them well, because their pronunciation is very clear, if they speak a Sardinian dialect, not even the continentals can understand them, philologists see the three main dialects as separate languages.

The Sardinians are very hospitable and it can happen that a tourist is invited in a bar by someone they’ve just met. Here comes an important piece of information: there is no law which forbids tourists to invite the locals as well!!

WHAT DO WE TAKE HOME?

The best and most expensive souvenir shops are called I.S.O.L.A, they can be found only in the cities, however. The village with the most souvenir shops, cheaper ones, is Dorgali on the east coast. There are also villages in which you can buy carpets directly from the loom, one is Ulassai, where you might go anyway, because there’s one of the two big stalactite caves. The carpets I like best come from Isili, which you can visit when you go to Barumini to see the great nuraghe complex. the weaving mill (too big a word for the room with the looms) is beside the church.

And wine, of course! Poor you, if you come by plane! The most famous quality is called ‘cannonau’, more red wine than white is produced. The wine cellars are called ‘cantina’, they sell open wine, too. People go there with plastic (!) containers and fill in the wine with the help of a pump, just like at a filling station. The wine is so good and strong, it can stand that treatment. (Now you know the REAL reason why Germans go to Sardinia by CAR!) Another speciality is bitter honey, ‘miele amaro’, which is sold in supermarkets.

READING MATTER

In 1938 Grazia Deledda from the town of Nuoro received the Nobel Prize for literature, I can't find out if her novels have been translated into English, please check that for yourselves. The same for Gavino Ledda, a shepherd boy from the north of Sardinia, now a professor for linguistics in Sassari, who wrote a fictitious autobiography, the Italian title is 'Padre Padrone' (a very highly acclaimed film was made after the book). Don’t read D. H. Lawrences travel diary, of which I stole the title. It’s extremely silly and can be appreciated only by hard core Lawrence fans. Just one example: he went to Sardinia at the beginning of January (!) and then repeatedly complained about the cold!

And then there is Michael Dibdin who wrote a series of thrillers set in different regions of Italy. The one which is set in Sardinia is called ‘Vendetta’, I recommend it highly. This book is now on offer at psbooks. You can find my op about Dibdin just under this one.

Adiosu e a si biri! Adieu and good bye!