Read previous episode. Yesterday was a very special day. Although it was terribly hot due to a circulation switch and I felt really weak, I went to a meeting with Maria Paola. A young girl who is a member of the local folk group. She is the owner of an old traditional costume that belonged to her grandmother and she invited me to join the dressing. Her folk group had an evening performance in Buggerru – a nearby town along to other 15 folk groups from the region. They performed not only a parade but also traditional group dance. Her house is only a few minutes from my apartment, but even such a short walk end up with wet t-shirt caused by unnatural heat and humidity. I could hardly imagine a person who dresses these layers of traditional costume one after another in this weather. Tradition The apartment of Maria Paola’s family is like a local museum – they keep all family treasures, like porcelain, furniture, portraits and even the costume original buttons. When I entered the room I was greeted by the whole family who got excited that a foreigner is interested in their traditions. I deeply appreciated the moment when I can meet people who are proud of their traditions and have this need of sharing it with the world. So there I was and my role was to listen, watch and try to understand. Maria Paola is one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. Her typical Sardinian look fits not only the apartment and this context but most of all the costume. She had a makeup ready but felt the warmth too, so a big fan was brought to the drawing room and the process of dressing begun. She started from dressing a large white tunic that was more like a dress as it was large enough to cover her knees. This was an original piece of her grandmother clothes and it was made out of fine cotton and very particular lace on the neckline and the edges of the sleeves. After having this chemise on she got her shoes on too. This order seemed to be very clever since the rest of the dress is really heavy and it would be almost impossible to get her shoes after the skirt and apron. A very elegant pair of black shoes, similar to the flamenco dancers. Then, she dressed an old fashion underwear trousers and the first skirt. All of what she dressed was made of white cotton and she looked like figures in the old pictures already. While dressing next pieces of the traditional costume, she was explaining the purpose of each piece. The white skirt was giving an extra volume, a sort of corset was modelling her figure, slimming her waist and thanks to a sort of small pillow on the back it was holding the external skirt on place. Everything had a purpose Another smart feature was an additional piece in the circuit of her skirt and underskirt so when a girl was gaining weight or got pregnant she could still use the same robes just making it bigger. In the past, the costume was so expensive that the family bought it once in a lifetime, therefore it had to be flexible, to some extent and of the highest quality. The final four pieces of clothing were like a cherry on a cake. A colourful frilly skirt, jacket and a sort of shawl covered the white veil. Maria Paola methodically put one piece after another with a great care and attachment to the details. It was fascinating to watch how focused on the details her movements were. When she stood there in front of me fully dressed in this costume that was more than fifty years old I got amazed by the beauty of it. The final result was dashing. And what strikes me  even if this cloth was of traditional provenience it was very successful in extracting the natural beauty and the most beautiful female features. I went and visite Maria Paola again, August 15th, to watch another costume. And the pictures below show the new costume made for her by the local tailor. The figure of Maria Paola, her face and movements were perfectly matched making her even more beautiful. Later in the evening we watched her folk group dancing at the nearby feast in Buggerru. Tiny steps, joyful music and wonderful choreography made the show incredibly attractive. The proud of these people out of their heritage was visible to everyone. And for a while I felt jealous and sad because the generation of my grandparents who survived the war had no such opportunity to pass my anything related to their clothing or dancing traditions. Their generation was robbed out of their heritage. The extreme poverty and death took the chance of passing anything to the next generation. And even if it’s been more than fifty years passed I am the third generation that suffers. All I knew about the past of my grandparents was a few stories of how tough their lives were. And that night when I watched Maria Paola dressing her grandmother costume I felt the sadness of the people from whom such privilege was taken away.  More about Sardinia is coming soon.  

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Read the previous episode One of the evenings last week was especially enjoyable. We drove far north, crossed few little towns (Arbus, Guspini, Sanluri, Las Plassas) and found ourselves in a different subregion. The area located far from the sea differs greatly from where we stayed. Fluminimaggiore is only 7km from the shore and is surrounded by the mountains of about 1000 meter high. A new region called Marmilla was quite different. Its flatness and dryness was what striked most. Rocky hills are left in the south and the whole region is a great burnt plain. Every little hill gave us an opportunity to see far in every direction. Dried fields, olive groves, modest shruberry were pretty much all. After a few kilometres, there was a curiosity: the remains of the volcano that created a regular plain formatted about a hundred meters above the rest of the plains called Giara. Not only being volcanic makes it special: it has been formatted out of basalt few thousands of years ago which made it a surpassing in this dry land a rich reservoir of fresh water. Out of this height four different rivers have their sources and there are many natural wells. Such unusual natural conditions caused the appearance of a bronze age culture called the Nuragic civilization after nuraghe – a characteristic building remains just like the one below. Archeology The Nuragic Civilization had a few distinctive characteristics, however, most of the issues related to their social life and religion is obscure. Many of the scientific theories remain unconfirmed. They were living in a relative isolation for few hundred years and created fortifications and large villages in this area. As Sardinia has been conquered many times throughout of history by a variety of dominate groups like Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantine Greeks just to become a playground of powerful kingdoms and duchies in mediaeval and modern times. As a result of such turbulent history, there is an exceptional mix of all elements of the past rulers. Therefore, there is plenty of archeological sites in Sardegna and I wanted to visit at least one of them. We started our journey at 16:00 but until 20:00 it was so hot I could hardly remember of what I saw. We entered an archeological site of Giara accompanied by two little local dogs. The view made us partially sad and partially fascinated with what we saw. The site looks like abandoned many years ago, there was only one wooden board with basic information about the place and the other ruins and remains were left as they were found. There was a road constructed out of basalt, few houses, and a high wall. Although the panorama was beautiful as we were watching vast plain below of a bleach colors, the place was unfriendly. A strong wind made this impression of hostility even stronger. The large part of information about the place came from Cesare, whose master thesis was based on the field archeological research he did more than thirty years ago. He was deeply touched with what he saw and shared spontaneously his own memories. I think the absence of care for this place made him very sad. He looked like a person whose mind was in the same place but trapped thirty years ago and who was trying to make sense out of what he sees. Quite unsuccessfully, I’m afraid. As the heat drained us in a few minutes, we continued our visit by car and visited a small town of Gesturi and further Barumini. A UNESCO Site A description by UNESCO is very helpful to clarify what nuraghe is: “During the late 2nd millennium B.C. in the Bronze Age, a special type of defensive structure known as nuraghi (for which no parallel exists anywhere else in the world) developed on the island of Sardinia. The complex consists of circular defensive towers in the form of truncated cones built of dressed stone, with corbel-vaulted internal chambers. The complex at Barumini, which was extended and reinforced in the first half of the 1st millennium under Carthaginian pressure, is the finest and most complete example of this remarkable form of prehistoric architecture”. First, we stopped at the main square of Gesturi when a local feast was taking place. The square was decorated with color little flags that made a loud noise ruffled by the wind. Old ladies were leaving the church with their hair covered talking in the dialect that is impossible to understand. Their local saint has had 133 anniversary of birthday and so the town was celebrating. Then, we went to visit a must-see place. The UNESCO World Heritage Place called Su Nuraxi di Barumini. Even it was 19:00 in the evening it was still hot. I could hardly understand the guide and eventually gave up. I was just hanging around in the remains left out of the biggest known nuraghe. It was similar to the experience of walking the Pompeii complex though this one was much more modest and primitive. The round houses cuddled together and crouched around the main protective tower looked like little chickens with a hen. The guided visit caught my attention when we entered the tower through a very small passage with unregular stairs only to discover the inner circulation of the air was very limited. I became pale in a second and felt really bad so the rest of the visit I spent sitting on the of the rocks. As I rest a bit I felt better and could ask some questions to the guide. A concert In front of the ruins, there was a concert of the folk music organized by a band from Sardinia. We and a hundred of other people were sitting in the dark and watching an illuminated stage. It all started with the first song by Tenores di Neoneli Orlando and Eliseo Mascia – a well-known folk band of international fame. The sound was exquisite as these men performed a throat singing. Their powerful voice was echoed by the oldest ruins in the area...

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