Prepared By: Cellester Kaye B. BartolomeJanuary ,2013

Italian 11

SARDINIA

• The Italian name for Sardinia is Sardegna, pronounced sar|DEHN|ya.

• Sardinia’s capital city is Cagliari, pronounced KAHL|yah|ree.• Sardinia is one of Italy’s five autonomous regions.

• There’s one UNESCO World Heritage Site listing on Sardinia –

the ruins of 2nd century B.C.E. structures called “nuraghi.”

• People from Sardinia are called sardi (masc. pl.). Other

variations are:

sardo (masc. sing.), sarda (fem. sing.), and sarde (fem. pl.).2

FAST FACTS

GEOGRAPHY

• Sardinia - second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea

• The nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Balearic Islands.

• To the west of Sardinia is the Sea of Sardinia, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea; to Sardinia's east is the Tyrrhenian Sea, which is also an element of the Mediterranean Sea.

• The coasts of Sardinia (1,849 km long) are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays, rias, many inlets and with various smaller islands off the coast.

3

• has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and

the mainland of Italy, is not earthquake-prone.

• The island has a typical Mediterranean climate.

Average temperature is between (52 to 63 °F).

• During the year there are approximately 135 days of sunshine,

with a major concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn,

some heavy showers in the spring and snowfalls in the highlands

4

WEATHER AND CLIMATE

• From about 1500 BC onwards, villages were built around

the round tower-fortresses called “nuraghi”, which were

often reinforced and enlarged with battlements. The boundaries

of tribal territories were guarded by smaller lookout nuraghi

erected on strategic hills commanding a view of other territories.

• The Nuragic civilization was linked with other contemporaneous megalithic civilization of the western Mediterranean such

as the Talaiotic culture of the Balearic islands and the

Torrean civilization of southern Corsica.

5

NURAGIC CIVILIZATION

• The primary sector is focused on goat and sheep rearing, based mainly on production of milk and cheeses, protected by designation of origin, like the Pecorino Sardo and the Pecorino Romano.

• Agriculture was modernized under fascism and immediately

after the Second World War, mainly in the Campidano and Nurra

plain, where were realised important works of land reclamation.

There is little fishing (and no real maritime tradition), but the

once prosperous mining industry is still active though

restricted to coal (Carbonia, Bacu Abis), antimony (Villasalto),

gold (Furtei), bauxite (Olmedo) and lead and zinc (Iglesiente, Nurra).

6

MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD

• The granite extraction represents one of the most flourishing industries in the northern part of the island. The Gallura granite district is composed of 260 companies that work in 60 quarries, where 75% of the Italian granite is extracted.

• The cork district, in the northern part of the Gallura region, around Calangianus and Tempio Pausania, is composed of 130 companies and has become the driver of Sardinian economic development. Every year in Sardinia 200,000 quintals of cork are carved, and 40% of the end products are exported. Fishing along the coasts is also an important activity on the island. Portoscuso tunas are exported worldwide, but primarily to Japan.

7

MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD

• Rock lobster, scampi, bottarga, squid, tuna, sardines and

other seafood figure in Sardinian cuisine, though meat,

dairy products, grains and vegetables constitute the most

basic elements of the traditional diet.

• Suckling pig and wild boar are roasted on the spit or

boiled in stews of beans and vegetables, thickened with bread.

Herbs such as mint and myrtle are used. Much Sardinian

bread is made dry, which keeps longer than high-moisture breads.

Those are baked as well, including civraxiu, coccoi pinatus,

a highly decorative bread and pistoccu made with flour and water only,

originally meant for herders, but often served at home with

tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic and a strong cheese.8

CUISINE

• Sardinia boasts the highest consumption of beer per capita in Italy, 60 liters per person, that is double if compared with the national average.

• The discovery of jars containing hops, in some archeological archaeological sites, evidence that beer was produced since the copper age.

9

HIGHEST CONSUMPTION OF BEER

• Alongside Italian (Italiano), the official language

throughout Italy, Sardinian (Sardu) is the most widely spoken

language on the island. Sardinian is a distinct branch of

the Romance language family, and not an Italian dialect.

• Influenced by Catalan, Spanish and indigenous Nuragic elements with some roots from Phoenician. While it has been significantly supplanted by Italian for official purposes, in 2006 the regional administration has approved the use of Limba Sarda Comuna in official documents.

10

LANGUAGE

• Sardinia is home to one of the oldest forms of vocal polyphony, generally known as cantu a tenore. In 2005, Unesco classed the canto a tenore among intangible world heritage.

• Several famous musicians have found it irresistible, including Frank Zappa, Ornette Coleman, and Peter Gabriel. The latter travelled to the town of Bitti in the central mountainous region and recorded the now world-famous Tenores di Bitti CD on his Real World label. The guttural sounds produced in this form make a remarkable sound, similar to Tuvan throat singing. Another polyphonic style of singing, more like the Corsican paghjella and liturgic in nature, is found in Sardinia and is known as cantu a cuncordu.

11

MUSIC

• Sardinian culture is alive and well, and young people are actively involved in their own music and dancing. In 2004, BBC presenter Andy Kershaw travelled to the island with Sardinian music specialist Pablo Farba and interviewed many artists. His programme can be heard on BBC Radio 3. Sardinia has produced a number of notable jazz musicians such as Antonello Salis, Marcello Melis, and Paolo Fresu.

• The main opera houses of the island are the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and the Teatro Verdi in Sassari (soon to be replaced by the new Teatro Auditorium Comunale).

12

THEATER

Goffredo Mameli  - an  Italian patriot, poet, and writer was a notable figure in the Italian 

Risorgimento. He is also the author of the

lyrics of the current Italian national anthem.

Antonio Segni - was an Italian politician who was the 35th Prime Minister of Italy  (1955–1957, 1959–1960), and the 4th President of the Italian Republic  from 1962 to 1964. Adhering to the centrist  Democrazia Cristiana – DC party, he was the first Sardinian ever to become Prime Minister of Italy.

13

Francesco Cossiga -  was an Italian politician, the 43rd Prime Minister and the 8th President of the Italian Republic. He was also a professor of constitutional law  at the University of Sassari.

Cossiga was born in Sassari  in the north of Sardinia. He started his political career during World War II.

Antonio Gramsci - was an Italian writer, politician, political theorist, sociologist, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy  and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime.

Gramsci was one of the most important Marxist thinkers in the 20th century.

14

Paola Antonelli - born in Sassari is a senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. She was recently rated as one of the top one hundred most powerful people in the world of art by Art Review.

Elisabetta Canalis  is an Italian actress.

appeared on the 13th season of Dancing with the Stars.  In 2011, she is, for Vanity Fair, the 4th woman most beautiful in the world. She has been also on 2010 the 7th most beautiful woman for Maxim and in top 50 for DT Spain magazine.

ATTRACTION SITES

Cagliari

Sardinia’s capital and largest city, city’s Sardinian name means “castle,” entire historic area known as “Castello” district, 13km of beach along the sea, home to several beautiful gardens/city parks, cathedrals, and palaces

Cagliari is a tourist city, and especially in summer a lot of clubs and pubs are goals for youth and tourists, pubs and night-clubs are concentrated in the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, narrow street in Stampace district, Marina district, near to the port and Castello district, as for clubs they are mostly on the Poetto beach (in summer), or in Viale Marconi (in winter).

16

Sassari – • Second-largest city in

Sardinia,• has a rich art history, • home to oldest

university in Sardinia

23

• Alghero

• Small city on northwest coast, • near many “nuraghi” ruins, • home to many churches and Neptune’s Grotto

(stalactite cave)

25

Maddalena Archipelago

• Small group of islands off the northeast coast of Sardinia, between Sardinia and Corsica.

• It consists of seven main islands and numerous other small islets.

• largest island is Isola Maddalena, includes a national park that was short-listed

for a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006

29

-End-