Day 30: The Kindness Of Strangers (And The Unreliability Of Fiats)

Our first full day in Cala Gonone. We decided try driving to Cartoe Beach which is about 25 minutes north of our hotel. The drive itself was an adventure where our little Fiat chugged up narrow and winding mountain roads where fallen rocks from above lay across the road in little ominous heaps as if they were threatening "we'll get you next time".

Cartoe Beach is so calm and peaceful. The kind of water that's so clear, when you put goggles on, you can see out seemingly forever. And also the kind of water I can just float on my inflatable pool ring for hours on end. Which I did.

You know with beach holidays come men on the beach selling their wares. Usually I'm used to the sunglasses, bracelets or a man wearing about 15 hats on his head at once. At Cartoe Beach they do it a little differently. This beach hustler was selling traditional Sardinian cheese. Yes, cheese. It wasn't a bad idea and if we weren't heading to an agriturismo for lunch, we would have considered this stranger's cheese. Only in Sardinia?!

What I didn't know until later on, was there was a naked man sitting behind these rocks.

Adam, my hero, blowing up my pool ring.

Using his arms as paddles.

Clear waters.

We had it all timed. We would leave the beach at 10.30am, get back to the hotel by 11am and leave for the agriturismo by 12.15pm to make sure we got there right on time. Aaaaand then our Fiat 500 wouldn't start. Aaaaand there was no phone reception. Great.

Fortunately there was a little beach shack where some people were selling beach goods (and presumably cheese?). And while they didn't speak English (oddly they could speak German), they understood that our car had broken down and one of the guys quickly got up to help us.

After looking at our little car and exclaiming "Ah, Fiats!" in a tone that made me think he is all too familiar with the problems of Fiats, he determined it was our battery and brought his car around to jump start it for us. Success! The car started and we were only 15 minutes behind our timeline.

Thank you friendly beach man for helping us.

And we were back on the (scary) road back to Cala Gonone. Adam was worried about the car not starting again once we stopped it. I was more confident.

As it turned out, I was also wrong. The car didn't start again. We decided to leave that problem until after lunch

Sooooo we ended up getting a tuck tuck up to lunch at Agriturismo Nuraghe Mannu. It wasn't all bad in the end.

How these little things manage bumpy mountain roads, I will never know.

All home made cured meats and cheese. YES.

And some local wine served in a jug, thank you very much.

Hand made pasta with goat. SO GOOD.

It's a big serving as part of a multi-course lunch but it was so delicious we finished the whole dish but responsibly said no to seconds.

They don't usually do lunch unless a big group book in. We were lucky because we booked this last minute and fortunately a big French tour group had booked in meaning we could sneak in for lunch too. 

Mid lunch. The goats had escaped their field and found themselves outside the restaurant. While exciting for us, the waitstaff weren't impressed and had to chase them back down the hill.

The goats all wear bells, so it was actually pretty loud.

Suckling pig. It was actually really intense and much different to what I've had before. Not bad, just different.

And dessert – a Sardinian pastry filled with lemony ricotta and dusted with icing sugar. I was full, but not too full for this.

Neither was Adam.

This was our first experience at an agriturismo. It was really rustic and fun, I just wish we could speak Italian so we could get a bit more of a story behind the dishes. And for €26 each (including wine), it was really well priced too.

After lunch, Adam wanted to have a refreshing (and tipsy) swim in the ocean.

While I didn't feel crazy full directly after lunch, I felt like I wasn't digesting anything and actually felt more full as the night went on. How could that be?!

Oh, and the Fiat? After numerous calls to Hertz, they sent out a guy to have a look at our car. Turns out the battery had become unclipped so he just clipped it back into place. That was it. Not sure why there is an option for the battery to become so easily disconnected but, in the words of the kind Italian who helped us out today, "Ah, Fiats!"