39.12.194N 9.07.645E

Today was yet another day of hard…..err….rest. Today’s excuse for not working was the fact that today is the Festa di Sant’Efisio.

Sant’Efisio or Saint Ephisius is the patron saint of Cagliari. On the 1^st May Cagliari celebrates Sant’Efisio by holding a procession through the town and a hardy few make the four day pilgrimage to Nora and back with a statue of the saint. Sant’Efisio was a roman and was dispatched to Italy to persecute the Christians. One night he saw a vision of God, converted to Christianity and defended the Christians on Sardinia. He was beheaded in Nora in 303AD.

We were up bright and early and set off into town to get a good spot for viewing the parade. The parade started with carts pulled by oxen decorated with flowers, then people in national costume follow on foot. There were quite a lot of carts and people in the parade, so after a while we decided to leave. We heard from one hardy soul that there were then people on horseback and finally the statue of the saint. The parade started at 10 am and finished 4 hours later.

The carts decorated with flowers and petals strewn across the road.                                   The oxen were rather large …..

….but well groomed                                                                                                People in national costumes followed

After getting back to the boat and having an hour or so to recover we went out to the “Fiera”. There is an event on at the exhibition center behind the boat yard. It’s been on for a week already so we thought we should go and see what all the noise is from. It turned out to be the Sardinian equivalent to the “Ideal home exhibition” with a fun fair. We also saw some traditional Sardinian dancing where the men dance while balancing a glass of wine of their heads.

Dancing while balancing wine on your head…personally we would drink it before the dancing starts