San Sperate, Sardinia

 Sometimes when you travel you run across something which just blows your sox off.  Some things which spring to my mind are:  Volcano Park, Hilo, Hawaii; Icebergs floating by, Twillingate, Newfoundland; Miniature famous buildings, Nova Scotia; Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  There are bunches of others, some of which are small such as the old Aquarena Springs in Texas, to the buried Cadillacs in West Texas, to the Cabinetry Museum in New Braunfels.  It's totally delightful when one pops up unexpectedly.

For some reason, I got up at dawn the day of this excursion, and that early rising resulted in what I think is one of my best photos of the trip.  Here is sunrise coming into the port on the island of Sardinia

We took the excursion to San Sperate, Sardinia to see the frescos painted on the village walls.  The village, which has become the home of various artists because of this fresco project, wanted life depicted in the village from 1890 to 2022.  The spearhead artist developed a new artistry using the native rocks.

Fresco on the wall of the village of Sciola and his daughter

His full name is Punuccio Sciola, and he discovered when you cut open different types of rocks, you can make them sing.  I managed to record his daughter who now runs the "Open Air Museum" making a rock sing.  Here's a picture of some of the museum contents

Different varieties of rocks have different tones.  The way they are cut will open up different tones.  To find the tone, you take a hand held rock and drag it across the rock face with the cuts.  Some rocks are cut completely through leaving bands of rock.

These two pictures are of the same rock - you can see daylight through it.  I don't know if the algae affects the tonal quality of the rock.

As we left the museum - no gift shop which I thought was the height of stupidity -, we gathered at a local cafe for a luncheon snack.  Coincidentally (sure), there was a fresco artist who claimed to have painted most of the 'important frescos' in the village.  His wife was also there rolling her eyes, and snorting at him.  

Fresco Artist

I thought he was pretty interesting to talk to.  His age made him a contemporary of Sciola, and the fresco outside the cafe was one he painted.

His wife, Marcella 

 

  

Fresco painted by the artist we met in the cafe

The most prominent fresco upon entering the village is the one which tells the village history.  Here it is:

Village Life

The upper part of the fresco shows current village life.  The bottom of the fresco, particularly the bottom right shows the village is built upon its antiquities emphasizing its longevity in this very spot.  

I loved San Sperate, but San Sperate did not love me.  I managed to get tourista (ecoli infection in your gut) which took me out of commission for two days.  I was so mad after I finally started feeling better.  Got acquainted with the ship's doctor.  He saw me twice, and I finally got everything back under control after 36 hours and some medication.  I kicked myself because I thought about getting anti-diarrhea meds from my doctor before I left, but  I let it slip through the cracks.  Never again!  

I did get some great pictures of this town, the frescos and the singing stones.  Here are the pix

San Sperate, Sardinia

Finally, people think there are great sunsets at sea.  That happens rarely.  Usually, the sun just drops below the horizon and it's like turning out a light.  However, upon leaving Saradinia, there was the rare sunset picture.  Here it is: