The tables at Gli Uffici, on the medieval ramparts of the Castello district in Sardinia’s capital, Cagliari, replenish quick. Lunch is sacrosanct right here, with church buildings, faculties, and places of work closing in its honor. Locals and guests come to this beloved restaurant for the sweeping views of the traditional citadel, the port, and the ocean, and to feast on the nostalgic favourite porceddu—suckling pig slow-cooked with dandelion and rock salt extracted from Santa Gilla, the lagoon with salt pans that pulls town’s well-known pink flamingos. The white crystalline pyramids graze the horizon.
Reaching for the crimson wine, I knock over the desk salt, which has my Cagliaritana lunch companion, photographer Francesca Ardau, urging me to “appease the devil—throw a pinch over your left shoulder.” It’s a superstition, she tells me, courting again to the Roman conquest, when the island was exploited for its mineral wealth and salt was thought of too treasured to spill.
I relish lingering over lunch in Cagliari. Back in my scholar days in Italy, taking the time to sit down down and eat, then honor the siesta hour, was a nonnegotiable each day ritual. In many components of southern Europe, globalization has introduced an finish to those languid rhythms, however not right here. Cagliari stays true to a go-slow ethos revolving round neighborhood and tradition, with a glass or two of Cannonau, the island’s well-known Grenache-like wine, for good measure. The mountainous panorama does its half to maintain the inhabitants match, serving to Sardinia earn a spot as one of many world’s Blue Zones, areas identified for his or her exceptionally excessive focus of centenarians. Though Cagliari has all of the comforts of a contemporary European metropolis, its central focus is on preservation—of place, of customs, and of individuals.
Ardau asks sardonically (the basis of the phrase could be traced again to the islanders’ black humor) whether or not I do know that the broad beans I’m having fun with can kill an individual if that individual is Sardinian. 1 / 4 of the island’s inhabitants has favism, a deficiency of the enzyme wanted to digest the fava bean. The very meals that helps some Sardinians stay wholesome into outdated age can kill others.
While revisiting the island, I get pleasure from different Sardinian quirks. In the morning at San Benedetto, one of many largest coated markets in Europe, the Cagliaritani come to do their buying on the 300 or so cubicles, the place tastings and cooking occasions are sometimes supplied as effectively. There is a hollered trade of greetings and gossip between stallholders and buyers, between neighbors and pals, as they congregate on the bars for the third espresso of the morning. I’m charmed by the Pecorino Romano service provider singing arias to his cheeses and joshing with the pensioner he addresses as “giovanotto,” or younger man. The vendor will not settle for something however money for the hunk of cheese I’m after. The identical factor occurs on the Villanova studio of ceramist Gianpaolo Olianas when I attempt to purchase a pair of whimsical cerulean goats. Cagliari is an anomaly, maybe the one remaining Western capital the place money continues to be king. Signor Olianas provides me his umbrella, insisting I take it with me on my strategy to the ATM in case of a sudden unseasonal deluge.
Similarly, the electronic-bike rental service Easycletta refuses any fee for my rental when the bike loses energy midway alongside Poetto seaside. In the summer time, residents of town migrate there from the hill. At virtually 5 miles lengthy, Poetto, town’s official strip of sand, is without doubt one of the longest in Italy. It extends outdoors town port to run beside the bamboo-and-reed-fringed brackish lagoons of Molentargius-Saline Regional Natural Park, the place herons, egrets, harriers, and flamingos come to breed. In summer time seemingly all of Cagliari could be discovered within the many kiosks and glamorous seaside golf equipment on the shores of the Bay of Angels.