A Sardinia Aperitivo
Crystal blue persuasion
It’s been a frigid winter in New York and as we approach the thaw and look towards Summer, it felt like a great time to revisit a time where I felt very warm. Sardinia in September.
Analysis paralysis. I had a lot of trouble deciding on where we should go on our honeymoon. Someone even jokingly said to me “don’t you think you’ve traveled enough?” My brother, you own a truck! I digress.
When you travel, you pull a thread. You arrive in El Chaltén and people are recommending Torres del Paine. At a cooking class in Palermo, the island of Lampedusa is the whispered counsel.
I was thrilled by our honeymoon, but Sardinia has been calling my name for years. It is Katie Parla’s favorite Italian Island, she passionately recommends it on any podcast, and this certifiable expert literally wrote the book on the subject.
While I’m not exactly a more is more guy, despite thousands of data points to the contrary, once I found out that my office was closed the Friday before Labor Day, it was enough of a nudge to put a Sardinia trip together.
There have been pronouncements that you need at least a month to do Sardinia right (don’t you people have jobs?), so I knew that a seven day survey would only be enough for a nice preview, a snack. But who doesn’t love an aperitivo! I love those little bites when your appetite is just coming into focus and the anticipation of the meal lies ahead.
After putting on a successful full court press on my pragmatic and fiscally responsible wife, the flights were booked and research was underway. It can take many hours to navigate the Island so we needed an efficient route. I got a ton of value from r/sardinia and I think Reddit will continue to become a pit stop for travel research.
Sardinia is famous for both it’s rugged mountains that make up the interior and the jaw dropping coastline that runs along it’s border. We needed a survey of each, but had to be expedient.
The flag also goes very hard; originally showcasing four severed heads representing the heads represented the heads of Moorish princes defeated by the Aragonese, the Mediterranean empire that previously ruled over the region.
Old Flag: Heads blindfolded, facing left. 😤
New Flag: No longer blindfolded, facing right. Low T?
We flew into Cagliari, and picked up the rental car. They tried to upgrade us to something “grande,” but our hearty protestations of “piccolo! Piccolo per favore!” put us in a Ford Focus hatchback that was up for the task of narrow roads, narrower alleys, and the Tetris-esque parking situations that defines driving in Italy.
Coming off the red eye flight through Rome, an espresso and caffeine gum to follow put my house in order. Intermittent thunderstorms and watching drivers hydroplane in front of me made me grateful I had watched Michael Mann’s Ferrari1 on the flight over to hone my driver skills like Enzo (played by Adam Driver).
My automatic-only driving skillset felt almost a low T as the “new” Sardinian flag, but a few hours later, we were driving into Cala Gonone. As an aside, my wife and I saw Adam Driver in the audience at Justin Peck’s excellent Illinoise and I gotta say I get it!
A very small town sitting on the central eastern coastline, Cala Gonone is not a place where too many people stay. Rather, it is seen as the jumping off point for a survey of a series of stunning coves accessible only by boat that make up the Orosei Gulf: Cala Luna, Cala Gabbiani, Cala Mariolu, and Cala Biriola.
We love a TINY TOWN
Looking back on some of our favorite travel moments, it was walking into plazas of Favignana, Cefalu, Monopoli etc…chasing down a nice meal and taking a short passeggiata back to bed.
We parked the car, settled into our humble little hotel room, as a bonus trip the goal was to go for the budget options vs splash out, and took in the panorama of the Tyhrrenian sea. I was in a celebratory mood, so I had to get a fit off.
Tiffany is an absolute expert at landing in a place and quickly getting the lay of the land to queue a special meal. She found a restaurant that only had five tables, with folks lining up around 6pm for the chance to eat freshly made Sardinian specialties presented like a home cooked meal. Sa Cuchina kicked off with the crispy seasoned pane carasau, think of a perfect cracker, including roasted pecorino dotted with carmelized onions and local honey.
We tucked into culurgiones, pasta dumplings stuffed with potato, mint, and cheese. The co-pilot was pasta busa, long fresh tubes, with a simple and deeply flavorly tomato sauce.
The local grape of Sardinia is Cannonau (~Grenache), and the lovely woman suggested a glass from a very small winery nearby, portraying an elegance that surpassed it’s humility.
We made our way along the walkway that followed the bay, and found the longest line for gelato. While a line in New York usually means Tik Tok has had its way with a restaurant, in Italy the longest line for gelato means that the Italians have voted and this is the winner. Sardinian honey is a speciality, and the ricotta & miele amaro (bitter honey) knocked me out.
As we landed back at our hotel room and sat on the balcony to take a minute, the sounds of a roaming men’s chorus echoed up to our window. A group of men gathered in a circle and sang traditional folk songs in acapella as the restaurant below poured them complimentary wine. Serenaded and exhausted, we crashed into sleep.
The following morning, we driving ~ 90 minutes into the hills to a tiny village, recently purchased by the enterprising bread maker (and much more), Simonetta Bazzu. A lawyer by trade, Simonetta, bought the 5 building village of her grandparents and has create a Blue Zone2 food experience in the former home of her grandparents. We learned about her from Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy,” and Simonetta, walked us through how to make three different pastas in escalating difficulty. The class was themed around the steps to longevity. Simonetta highlighted that the meditative act of sitting with a group of friends and chatting, while making pasta, was one of the keys to a long life.
The research into the Blue Zone has highlighted that along with a healthy diet, being well integrated into a community was a key factor. There’s much to be made of loneliness at the moment and the simple act of stepping away from the algorithm and sitting with a group of friends for a few hours to make a meal is feeling increasingly relevatory and nourishing.
Simonetta then brought out the Casu Martzu a black market cheese made famous for it’s strong odor and the unescapable fact that the cheese is occupied by worms that continue break down the cheese and create a flavor so compelling that it turns the average Sardinian into cookie monster.
The live worms make the cheese illegal, but it is considered such a sought after delicacy on the island that it is often referred to as Sardinian cocaine. It was in a word, robust, but if I hadn’t known the cheese had worms taking their passeggiatta, it actually didn’t taste that wild. I’ve been served far more flagrantly fragrant formaggio at a bistro in Paris. Simonetta’s thick black rubber gloves and metal pot containing the cheese within elevated the drama.
That afternoon, we took in a little beach time as we settled back into Cala Gonone in the early evening and took a seaside dinner that was punctuated by an aggressively indifferent waiter, and quite a few mosquitos. I wanted to eat by the sea, but Tiffany astutely predicted the meal was going to be far more “whatever,” as they were trading on the location vs. the highest quality. That being said, the orecchiette with bottarga, lemon, and clams was cooked to perfection. The concept of Al Dente is a tight rope walk, but when they stick the landing, it’s special. I walked away both satiated and en route to gelato.
The following day put us on the boat tour, aka the main attraction of Cala Gonone. We hopped on a healthy size dinghy, that thankfully had a large canopy to shield us from the punishing sun. By 915am, it was blazing. Despite a group of 13, the whole thing was perfectly organized, and it was quite literally clear the great lengths Sardinia has gone to protect their stunning beaches. The coves we explored were only available via boat or a multi-hour hike. Boating into the coves is tightly controlled and access is continually limited.
There is no summarizing my gratitude on the many beautiful places we’ve been able to explore the last few years and I’m wary of superlatives, but ultimately Sardinia has some of the best water I’ve ever seen.
It is wildly astoundingly hyperbolically clear.
Swimming in the endless coves, I dove down and could not only see a hundred feet down, but also hundreds of feet across. The water was so clear (note: gotta get a thesaurus), that I had the unique experience of staring up at the water and seeing the distinct meniscus of the top of the ocean as the sun shined down. It felt like being in a swimming pool. I’m not a GoPro guy so you’ll have trust. If you ever need to hide some incriminating evidence, just put it on your buddy’s GoPro during a ski trip. Ain’t nobody gonna see that sh*t!
We spent the full day from 9am onward, boating & swimming, with a nice stop for lunch at Cala Maralou, which they claimed was the “2nd best beach in the world.” Who exactly is making these polls? AP? USA Today?
But when you have a tight itinerary, you gotta make moves. We thankfully never felt rushed. We returned back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and drove ~40 minutes into the hills to Su Gologone experience hotel. More than a few people emphasized that 2 days was the max amount of time to stay in Cala Gonone, so 10 days before we left, I pivoted into 2 nights at one of the more magical hotels I’ve ever seen. A hearty endorsement from top tier taste lord
drew me in, and the kicker was seeing that it was one of the hotels on Matt Goulding’s epic Roads & Kingdoms’ Sardinia itinerary. Standing on the shoulders of giants, we checked into Su Golognone where they gave us a break down of what they had on offer. Starting as a restaurant in the late 60s, it is now a sprawling hacienda, but maintains 110% of it’s charm. The hotel serves as a living gallery of a wide collection of Sardinian art from paintings, tapestries, masks and ceramics. They offer a guide book for self led tours. There’s an art studio with classes, and a terraced garden that supplies all the fresh vegetables for the restaurants. There’s horseback riding that can bring you into the hills. Our room was charming and boasted a square hot tub on the balcony.There’s a viewing platform tucked into the side of the hill where guests of the hotel gather for aperitivo in the evening before making their way to dinner. Activities are offered each evening and wanting to make the most of the hotel, we took part in their “Bread Dinner” on night 2. With a giant oven, they churned out a small survey of the over 900 kinds of Sardinian bread. From focaccia dotted with fresh tomatoes grown footsteps away or draped into pancetta that was melted into it upon roasting in the 500+ degree oven.
It was starting to feel like Italian Summer camp in a good way. One night, the hotel had two astronomers set up massive telescopes for the guests so we could check out Saturn before tumbling down the hill towards our room.
The hotel centers around a giant pool, and we made the most of it. I attempted to read the majority of Patrick Radden Keefe’s phenomenal ‘Say Nothing’ in a few days. Nothing says “beach read” like a hyper detailed account of the IRA and “The Troubles.” I realized recently watching the movie ‘Capote’ that Truman Capote invented this genre of writing with ‘In Cold Blood.’ Imagine inventing a genre! Social media took so much from us.
Making the most of the hotel and relaxing HARD, we enjoyed a long conversation with a cheerful Sardinian couple in a mix of Italian and English. The woman made me smile when she cheerily said, “Alicia Keys, dedicated a song to a city. Can you imagine, dedicating a song to a city? But in New York it is possible!” Sardinia, at least in the region we visited, has fewer Americans and other Europeans generally; I got to practice my Italian a ton and hadn’t spoken that much since I studied abroad. She eagerly asked if they really heated the sidewalks in New York in winter, and I tried to explain without crumbling the romantic notion.3
We learned some fun new words, coccchorone, a chatterbox, and loggerone, someone who talks so much, they even talk in their sleep.
Then it was back in the car, for our longest drive of the trip, 3 hours down to Villasimius, which sits on the bottom of the Sardinia, an hour east to the largest city of Cagliari.
Driving in and out of New York takes me out, but driving in Sardinia, 3 hours, flew by, as we took into sprawling mountains, tiny cobblestone flecked, towns, and little camping areas.
Upon arrival in Villasimius, we checked into a low key hotel, picked bc it was under $150/night and sat right at foot of the serene Campalungu beach. I’m prone to hyberbole, but once again, we were facing down crystal clear waters. Paired with the pleasant rhythms of Italians on vacation, card games, paddle board, and congenial converesation, I was thrilled to be wrapping our time here.
It is worth pointing out at this moment that I know how extra it looks that Tiff and I were in Europe twice this Summer, but we’ve run the numbers front and back and it is legitimately cheaper to vacation there than anywhere equivalent in the US. I say this not defensively, but inspirationally (I hope!)
Lucky break that our friends Rafa & Mica were just wrapping their time in Calabria. Mica, originally from Buenos Aires, just secured her Italian citizen ship after 5 months in Paola. They are an inspiring couple, with a variety of enterprises and ways of making it all work. Our most nomadic friends, we’ve now dined with them on 3 continents, having enjoyed delicious meals in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Brooklyn, and now Villasimius! My friend Gus, who used to be the somm at Altro Paradiso, recommended Galika, a v meaty restaurant serving up different preparations of beef, lamb, and horse. We found our way to to the hourse tartare, lamb skewers, and a gorgeous tomahawk that clocked in around 1.3 kilos. The scene was lit at 11pm with a baby taking his first steps while we chowed down on the carne.
I’m not going to step up to the “America’s food system is corrupted and poisonous” podium, but as a mostly pescatarian (65%+ let’s say), it is remarkable, how damn clean and flavorful, the meat is when I get involved in places like Italy.
The steak tasted well, like beef. Unadulterated. Expressing the flavor of a cow raised right. If I am going to eat meat, taking in all the baggage that comes with it, this is where I want to graze.
The following day put us back on a boat. The economies of scale enabled a larger private boat for the four of us. The cheerful Marco directed us to a series of coves, each one prettier than the last. The sheer volume of eye popping screensaver-esque waters, and charming little swimming spots, continued to knock my goggles off.
The sun was strong and I eventually bent the knee to Helios’ rays and pulled my rash guard over my Ashkenzi chest. Meanwhile, the Italians dotting the beach were sporting ripping tans of every variety of chestnut and mocha.
I’ve can’t remember swimming so much in a single day, lapping out to explore rocks known to have schools of fish, or jamming it to shore to check out a tidepool.
Dinner that evening started without a plan and ended with a bang-bang:
Stop 1: crudos: tuna & large gambero rosso (red shrimp), followed by a small grilled branzino, all prepared to perfection. Spending as much as a nicer sit down place, just for the raw ingredients. Washed down with Ichnusa, Sardinia’s tasty lager.
Step 2: A quick pivot into a pizza place that Rafa found in a pinch, that ended up being delicious Neopolitan pies, and an emergency respite from sudden thunderstorms. And me with my dang Belgians on. (they pack flat!).
Our final meal was an ambitious hour drive to Cagliari for drinks at Pippette, a wine bar, followed by “The King of Tuna,” Luigi Pomada. I’ll fully own that I was pushing my agenda on this one and forgot that many Argentines are not that into seafood.
A happy accident of Pippette is that they had Pusole, a Sardinian winery recommended (again) by Gus. We thought we might visit Pusole, but ran out of time. I’m thrilled I got to sample their excellent Vermentino. I typically don’t love Vermentino as it consistently runs a little too sweet and floral for my liking, but Pusole’s was beautiful and restrained. Snacks of bistro style fries, peach & tomato salad, steak tartare, and fried squash blossoms hit the table.
Then on to the “King of Tuna.” This is a higher end restaurant, definitely the nicest restaurant we visited on the trip. The prices were fare, especially given how premium the ingredients are as the man draws on the long tradition of bluefin tuna fishing from his neighboring hometown island of Caloforte. I respect Luigi’s commitment to his point of view, his devotion to exploring every expression of tuna. Perhaps not every dish landed as intended, but the ones that did were very memorable.
Blue fin tartare with mozzarella foam and caviar
Tuna belly with a lobe of foie gras
Finally, tuna filet wrapped with prosciutto that melted and sealed in the moisture like a mermaid’s hot pocket. An objectively creative expression of surf and turf that I still think about.
We also appreciated that Luigi touches the table. Who does that these days? What a guy. The meal was washed down with an wonderful Emidio Pepe Cerasulo, at a much greater value, since it didn’t have to be priced to pay the rent at a downtown NYC restaurant. The rose was meant to be a hedge between the red wine Argentines and my preference for a fuller bodied white. It paired perfectly with the savory tuna.
If Tiffany and I do anything consistently when we travel, we listen. We ask questions always fielding advice from locals, fellow travelers etc... The best time to visit a place is often the time you return. When we explored Italy in May’s volatile shoulder season, everyone told us that the best time to see the beaches was in September. The tourists thin out, the water has been warming up for 3+ months, and the sun is shining. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude that we were able to make this happen. Ci vediamo! (we will see each other). Sardinia’s secondi hasn’t even been served.
Okay, that movie quite bothered me; it was a times beautiful, melodic, aggressive, and fairly poised, but then happened to show one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen on screen (car crash with multiple civilian fatalities). I’m not a horror person, I turned off Midsommar halfway through; you did me dirty Mr Mann!
Characteristics of Blue Zones
Longevity: People in Blue Zones often live past 100 years old.
Health: People in Blue Zones are less likely to have chronic illnesses.
Lifestyle: People in Blue Zones have a combination of lifestyle factors that contribute to their longevity, including diet, physical activity, and social connections.
And now I will be thinking of the phrase “a mermaid’s hot pocket” forevermore.