Kiwi Roaming

For our final day we went exploring the city itself, it was Sunday so the streets near our apartment were quiet. We bused to the train station which is beside the port. This area has wide streets and a pedestrian promenade, you can see large ferries and even larger cruise ships in the port. The buildings are also very large and have portico covered footpaths with giant flagstones below our feet and cafe’s lining them.

We then jumped on the number 7 bus which took us up through the narrow streets to the top of the old city. It’s a cute wee bus and just fits through between the buildings, the drivers are very patient with the pedestrian tourists who wander aimlessly. The cruise ship tourists were hooning around on tours – small buses, Tok Tok’s, and electric golf carts.

The old town of Cagliari is steep, a bit like walking up Mt Victoria at home. There is a roman amphitheatre and other ancient artefacts but most of the structure was built in the 12th century, fortified walls, a citadel, palace and piazza’s. We got off the bus at the top of the hill to admire the view and wandered through the Piazza dell’Indipendenza where there is a museum and a series of single lane tunnels through the city wall. The traffic here is light as it’s a ZTL – Zona a Traffico Limitato – congestion zone.

We walked part way down the side of the old city wall, it looms above us and there is even a climbing wall built on the side of the wall. The views of the city, even back to the salt flats where we visited the flamingoes, are amazing. There are flowering trees everywhere, some plants are kinda recognisable – blue Jacaranda’s, Oleanders, Hibiscus – and others we have never seen before. A hay fever nightmare with everything in flower, the fragrances however are wonderful.

Back on the bus standing this time we enjoyed the experience of driving down these steep narrow streets. We hopped off to see the Bastione Saint Remy a grand plaza, massive, made of large stone flagstones. With hawkers galore the view is spectacular and buildings are impressive with huge huge arches. From here we walked down the massive spiral staircase which brought us to the museum which has a Tutankhamen exhibition on at the midpoint, then the start of the pedestrian precinct below.

Tired, hot and hungry we stopped at the first cafe in the shade and enjoyed a couple of cold Coke’s with calamari and a salad to share. It was siesta time but the tat shops were still open so we perused a few of these purchasing a couple of bits including a Sardinia fan for me in the hope it would cool me down. Retracing our steps from our first day we walked back down to the port enjoying the views before catching the bus back to our apartment for a late in the day siesta.

After siesta we headed out to the supermarket only to find it’s Sunday so the local ones were closed. A 15 minute walk away however was a Crai one which was open – yay. The walk took us past a few more landmarks and a massive sports complex, it was about 7pm and all of the playing fields were covered in teams, food trucks were setting up and there were people galore. We also walked along the tracks of the Cagliari tramway, we later found out this was part of an extension which was meant to be opened last year but has been delayed.

We barely scratched the surface of the city but it’s been good to see different aspects.

Final thoughts. The bus system once we figured it out is fantastic, every bus has a screen showing the upcoming stations and virtually every stop, no matter how residential, has a timings screen too. Our apartment had a washing machine on the wee balcony and with the heat as it was our clothes were dry in no time – like one to two hours max. Also below top left is the Sardinian melon – Piel de Sapo melon – is so yummy, we ate a whole one in Cannigione alone.