Saturday 21^st February – Cagliari (Carnivale)

39:12.064N 9:07.510E

This was a day of two halves as they say... 

In the morning we took care of domestics and took the bus out to Carrefour for a restock with trolley.

Cagliari:  Le Vele shopping centre

This afternoon we went into town to participate in the ongoing carnivale celebrations.  As we went in search of the action we discovered that some of the churches that we have previously found closed were all open; we couldn’t resist the detour and visited two of the churches.

The first, Chiesa di Sant’Eulalia, had many marble columns and statues, a little reminiscent of the cathedral.  There was only one other person in the church, an elderly man, reading in one of the pews.  After a while he approached (I wondered if he was about to complain as my shoes were squeaking on the floor and echoing round the church); he was very friendly and proceeded to give us descriptions of the paintings around the church, pointing out a superb copy of Da Vinci’s Last Supper behind the altar and the ones of Sant’Eulalia.  Although he was speaking in Italian, we understood quite a bit as we knew what he was trying to say – also we were too embarrassed to interrupt him and explain that we were English.  I waited until it looked like he had asked a question and then explained – he admitted defeat and wandered happily back to his pew.

Cagliari:  Chiesa di Sant’Eulalia

We carried on through the back streets in search of the carnivale procession and then came to Chiesa e Cripta del Santo Sepulco.  Upstairs there was ornate marble again but as we went in there were stairs down to the crypt.  Venturing downstairs, the crypt was decidedly creepy, complete with skull and crossbones on the wall and a painting of a skeleton on the ceiling.

Cagliari:  Chiesa e Cripta del Santo Sepulco

Eventually we found the carnivale celebrations with various street theatre.  We walked through the streets and up to the Bastione Saint Remy, meeting up with Stephen and Anne en route.  The costumes and masks worn were fabulous.  There seemed to be two distinct themes – one group seemed to have Pagan origins wearing sheepskins and horns, whilst others were very finely dressed Venetian style with fine robes and masks.

Cagliari:  Carnivale

Up on the Bastione they were starting a play on a stage they had erected there and events were due to continue until late.  At one side of the Bastion there was a very large ‘Guy’ made of straw which is due to be burned on Tuesday, the finale of the carnivale.

Cagliari:  Carnivale

By now it was getting dark and quite cold so we decided to come back.  On the side of the Bastione they were projecting a cartoon animation onto the wall.  As we were coming down the street there was an oompah band starting up and walking the same way as us.  So we trailed along behind joining in with the march until they reached our turning, whereupon we left them and wandered back to Pyxis and a welcome warm up.

Cagliari:  Carnivale

© Pyxis 2009