From Cinque Terre, we took a train down to Civitavecchia then boarded a ferry to Olbia, Sardinia. From there, we went to Cala Gonome on the east side of Sardinia. Cala Gonome is home to the Grotta Bue Marino, which are these amazing caves accessible by boat. The caves are reportedly 23kms or so long, we only saw about 1km. It’s amazing, but we were not allowed to take photos, due to “issues of copyright”??? and because picture taking could possibly hurt the stalagmites and stalagtites, which apparently only grow about 1cm every hundred years. Even with these crazy reasons, we observed the rules and didn’t take any photos inside.
While driving around, we ended up on a dead end road. From there a small pathway led down a small cove. We climbed down the path, and ended up in a fairly quite and picturesque beach. Free climbers surrounded us, taking advantage of the natural cliffs. Which reminds me that I want to go rock climbing, again. Mike and I tried it in Thailand, and again at an indoor gym in Philadelphia. Anyone out there want to go rock climbing? There are tons of places to rock climb around the Mediterranean, but I found a place in Slovenia that looks pretty good. We’ll probably be in there towards the end of September.
After a picnic lunch on the beach, we drove to Barumini, to check out the ruins of Su Nuraxi which are these circular, castle-like structures built by the indigenous people of Sardinia back in 1750BC. Apparently the Nuraghe people built about 10,000 of them all over Sardinia, only a few are as well-preserved as this one.
We are now in Cagliari, spent two nights here. Currently waiting for a ferry to take us to Palermo, Sicily. It’s an overnight trip–our first ever, sleeping on a boat. Once we get to Sicily, we’ll take a hydrofoil to Ustica a tiny, tiny island north of Sicily, for scuba diving lessons. It’s a five day course on an extremely small island. Mike’s not sure if we’ll have internet for 5 days; so it’s potentially going to be torture for him… personally, I’m more worried about the swim test.