Sardinia On My Mind

I’m back from my summer holiday and it was a corker. The villa, up in the hills of an area called Teramala in the Sant’Elena quarter, was comfy and had more or less all the comforts of home. It was of course a fair ways away from the centre of things in Cagliari (a good hour away by bus and they’re not frequent. Nor do Sardinian bus timetables and arrivals of said bus bear any relation to each other.) Somehow, when you’re on holiday in sunny foreign parts where rain is a word scarcely used, this does not irk you as it would if you were here in Blighty. The views from the villa were spectacular. And I’m not exaggerating. Cagliari itself, though hilly (9 of them to be exact) is easy to get around and the food splendid wherever you go. Even the tiniest supermarket has a plethora of cheeses and cold meats to choose from with tons of farm produce in the fruit and veg aisles. The buses, though erratic on the outskirts, were pretty reliable in the city itself and the price of tickets ridiculously cheap by comparison to the UK. Train tickets were also unbelievably economical.

For a moment though I thought things were going all too pear shaped. This was largely due to the fact our Airbnb hostess tried to diddle us out of 400 Euros on arrival. Luckily for us I’m an Airbnb hostess here in London so know how the system operates. Not to mention my travelling companion, aka Sheffield BF, is an ex lawyer. There was quite a lot huffing and puffing in Italiano from our hostess with this former South African and her pal standing our ground. Hostess left in a huff. We went to bed. When we finally managed to get an internet connection we contacted the complaints department of Airbnb and let them handle the situation.

This did make me feel as though I wasn’t going to enjoy my holiday. It tarnished the villa for me a little. But the scenery, food and general atmosphere made up for it all in spades. To top it all off I met up with the wonderful Rita Carla Monticelli in person. How fabulous it was to do a face to face with an author I’d connected with via Instafreebie. Sometimes the world and its Kevin Bacon-like connections is a wonderful place. I enjoyed Sardinia so much that I’ll definitely be going back. There’s just so much to do and see yet. And of course I’ll have to catch up with Rita Carla again.

Rita Carla, Me, Sheffield BF

Even after lugging a heavy suitcase along a busy road to get to the centre of Cagliari for our trip back to the UK, my shoulders are blissfully knot free. My gypsy soul is glad to have wandered in lands unknown but this writer is very happy to be back with her home comforts and WIP at her fingertips.