Continuities

I did wonder if we might have thunder but the forecast said it would be fine…. At 5am the rain must have been pelting down - our laundry drying on the terrace got wetter than when I hung it up.  My housewifely soul was dismayed….

We went to explore the environs. 

A small man (with a very round face and very round glasses and a very very very curly moustache) in the tourist office was helpful, spoke enthusiastic Italian-English, and told us the many many many choices we had if we want to make a visit to Isola d’Asinara.  We couldn’t see it yesterday in the humid air but it sits on the horizon today looking very attractive, and we thought we'd see if we could go there.  (Having been a dire prison for hundreds of years the island is now a wildlife sanctuary with white donkeys).  Evidently there are two different ferries leaving from different ports at different times and with different last-trip back times. One takes 20 minutes but is a fair drive away. The other leaves from near the hotel but takes one hour and fifty minutes each way.  You cannot take your own car.  There is a huge variety of ways to get about: walk, bike, taxi, road train, personal guide, on piste, off piste….  Some of these go to all the places, some do not.  You must decide and book any or all of these individually - and some in combination - before you go, preferable one or two days in advance. If you want a bike, say, at one place, you have to contact the owners who happen to be another place to find out if they can meet you there, and hand it over, and then later collect it, in enough time to get your ferry back.  There are three restaurants which you have to book before you go. He gave us FOUR pages of printed lists of phone numbers to choose from.  We have to make these calls ourselves, as the tourist office does not offer this kind of joined-up service.  Despite his enthusiasm, we have decided not to go….  

Next we found a booth dispensing a wide range of cannabis products. I would have bought some but the card-machine didn’t work.  

We walked on to the very old basilica of St. Gavino. It was built by Pisans between 1030 and 1080, and incorporates a lot of Roman columns dug up from nearby. It is named for a soldier martyred by a legendary Roman/mythical king called Re Bárbaro … Gavino was supposed to guard two silly Christians who refused to obey orders (from Diocletian?) to revert to paganism, and instead, he decided he ought to be a Christian too. So he was beheaded, along with them, in 304 AD. So these are the Trei Mártiri Turritani: San Gavino, San Proto and San Gianuario. The church which is rather lovely - long and plain, with an apse at each end - has their three life-size painted replicas on a sort of catafalque and people have come to pray and touch their little painted feet for a long time. Ancient courtyards on either side of the church have lodgings for pilgrims.  

    

We had a pizza lunch - first of the holiday - and then went back past the Tourist Office to see the Roman archaeological site….    There’s a wonderful seven-arched Roman bridge crossing the river to the west of the town, and a large area, partly excavated, with no less than three large public thermal baths, complete with mosaics, columns etc.    

     

We had a guide who spoke only Italian and rattled through his script so it was hard to get all the details, but the remaining structures and plumbing are pretty amazing. This was a trading port with a lot of money, nothing military about it, but he wasn't able to say how life was lived - how it was for the women and children, or the slaves….  From the top of the site you can see the modern ferry boats, the 19th century chemical factory towers, the petrochemical stacks, and this sprawl of stones and walls dating from 1st century BC through to late Roman - very interesting.  It all seems to be continuous, and it’s clear the later structures were just piled onto the older ones - great pillars hammered through delicate mosaics, including one of Orfeo - sadly you can only view this ‘upside down’… the public access is at the wrong side, so you can’t really see it properly. But it is very lovely.  The little fishpool shown here is all mosaics, and there are so many kinds of fish, all identifiable, including moray eels, squids, etc.  One of the bigger houses nearby has a mosaic saying 'Benvenuto a mia casa'- very hospitable. 

  

As we came to the end of the tour, a little train arrived at the station beside the site and Andrew went to see it. I said to the guide, 'He likes trains!' and he asked me ...'Tren? Treni?...' so I said 'Ah, trains! Plural! With an 's' at the end.'  And the guide went off saying 'Trens! Trens!'