“All falsehood is a mask; and however well made the mask may be, with a little attention we may always succeed in distinguishing it from the true face.” – Alexandre Dumas
Before I went to Sardinia for the first time I spent a good deal of time on the internet, searching for information – both useful information and not so useful information. Anything that could tell me something about this island and its people. I read something in one place and that led to another search and another web page and so on – down a dark and dirty information rabbit hole sometimes.
I knew nothing about Sardinia before I went the first time, the only thing I knew – or I thought I knew – was that it is a part of Italy and that they have lots of sheep and that it is dry and warm. Not impressive I know, but therefore the need and wish to learn and find out more before I went was certainly present.
Official tourist sites were not what I was looking for as I was in no need of a hotel or to find a good beach or restaurant or how to drive or take the train. Nor did I need a tourist guide or how to find my way around. I was going to spend my first 3 weeks with the locals so I could not have better tourist guides than that. What I wanted to know was more what other travellers (i.e. foreigners) had experienced and also about the culture and way of life on this island out in the Mediterranean.
In my quest for enlightenment, I came across A LOT of strange information, some of it appeared in several different web sites, so in my ignorance, I took them to be representative of life on Sardinia, albeit from a foreigner’s point of view.
The interesting, or indeed slightly perplexing thing, is that most of these beliefs turned out to be totally wrong. A misconception or an unlucky experience turned into a statement that ‘this is what Sardinia is like’. As I found out, even though you come across the same (mis)belief on several sites on the internet the information in them is not necessarily correct
The misbeliefs I came across the most were these:
Driving:
One page I visited had this dramatic description of how aggressive and dangerous driving is on Sardinia. There was even questions on TripAdvisor from people asking if it really was safe to drive on Sardinia at all – giving me an impression that my safety could be at risk driving here. And me in my ignorance remembering a death defying taxi ride I had in Naples 20 years ago had no qualms in believing this could be true for Sardinia too. Therefore I was apprehensive about driving and the first time I had to drive alone I was a tad scared. But no reason to whatsoever, yes they don’t have the same relationship to ‘personal space’ when they drive as we have up in the North of Europe, but they do not have aggressiveness going with it in my opinion. Yes, some like to speed and overtake where they shouldn’t, just like in many other European countries.
Driving here is not at all scary, being a cyclist or pedestrian is also alright – in fact they stop for pedestrians almost as much as we do in Norway where it’s regulated by law, the only difference is that here you can not EXPECT that they do so don’t valse out in the road before you see they intend to stop.
Internet:
According to a few sites the internet on Sardinia is virtually non existing. Some said hotels and bars don’t offer WiFi and it’s hard to find a good connection. Sardinia has a lot of wilderness and remote areas where there are no people living, and also mountainous areas. So of course there is no signal in many places. In the beginning I had a little portable Vodafone WiFi I could bring with me to wherever I was travelling and that one worked wherever there was a mobile signal. In towns many cafe and bars also have reasonably good WiFi. My Norwegian Telenor mobile subscription works fine everywhere there’s a phone signal.
Nobody speaks English: hm this one is almost true. I have not met many people who can speak English, not even a few words. This has certainly led to some funny experiences, but usually it’s not a big deal as lots can be accomplished with hand gestures and pointing and Google translate.
It always surprises me now when I come across a person who can converse with me in English. Bearing in mind that I stay in a part of Sardinia where there is not much mainstream tourism.
However, it can be quite frustrating when you visit a museum or see a sign at a historical place and all that’s offered is text in Italian – leaving you to guess what it says.
My advice to the Sardinian tourist board is that they spend that extra money to have some text available in English (and other languages) on museums and historical places. It will add so much to the experience for non Italian speaking visitors and make them feel more welcome. I have seen quite a few comments on TripAdvisor on this so I know I’m not the only one thinking this could be improved upon. Besides many people use TripAdvisor before they visit a place and constantly reading comments from others that ‘if you do not speak Italian you’re lost’ is off-putting for planning a visit.
However, in places with more tourism and larger visitor sites you’re much more likely to come across English speaking people, some offer guided tours in English (and other languages).
Weather: tourist sites like to promote Sardinia as having only nice weather – and yes that is true for most of the summer (the wind can be quite strong and with that flying sand on the beach). I also had this notion that Sardinia is a dry place, yes last summer there was hardly any rain between June and end of October. BUT nature made up for that in February, March and start of April, where there’s been raining almost every single day! A hike in nature now requires wellies rather than hiking boots.
Deadly spiders: The Mediterranean black widow, or Argia as it’s called in Sardinian. Before I arrived I read some horror stories about the poisonous spiders they apparently have here. About people having found these in their rental cars and out in fields. One lady even asked if it was at all safe to bring children to Sardinia because of this spider. I have not seen or heard anyone say anything about scary spiders, in fact, the Argia is not common at all. It was even thought to be extinct, until they found some species in the Oristano area some years ago. Delighting the zoologists at the university of Sardinia. The only warning I’ve had about creatures and insects are ticks, but we have those up in Scandinavia too.
People are prudent, old fashioned and superstitious: I read many places that people here are prudent, very old fashioned and superstitious – in addition to strictly religious almost down to pietistic. That they wore particular amulets and jewellery to protect themselves. That there was strict rules for dos and don’ts among people and how they interact and that they had a very relaxed relationship to being punctual on time. Maybe this was the case many, many years ago, but I found these people to be very openminded and laid back, way more similar to us Scandinavians that I could ever have imagine. And every time I have had to meet somebody they have always been punctual too.
Based on what I read I expected to be covered up in sturdy, big bikinis and lots of clothes to ‘cover up’ when I went to the beach. But no, wrong again, ‘Are you going to wear THAT?’ They said to me when I showed them my sturdy Norwegian bikini, so on the beach you can skimp on clothing, tiny little bikinis for women of all ages are totally acceptable. I found this quite wonderful, it’s ‘allowed’ to get some sun on your body even if it’s saggy and flabby and old (in your opinion that is). Hats off to the Sardinias for this, nobody needs to cover up on the beach. I did not see any top-less tanning, but small bikini tops are totally fine, even if your butt-cheeks hang out of a tiny bikini bottom that’s also OK, the beach is for all bodies. Maybe top-less tanning is the norm up in the more touristy areas up North, but not down here in the South-West.
Conclusion: simply and basically don’t be as naive as me, never take what you read on the internet as facts – even if you read the same thing on several different web sites. Remember that the advice on pages like TripAdvisor are only somebody’s personal opinion and might stem from misunderstandings or indeed an unlucky and unfortunate experience.
On that same note and in the same way: Please bear in mind that the above are my personal experiences from having spent around 8 months in total on Sardinia, mostly in the Iglesiente area and on La Maddalena, somebody else might have totally different opinions and experiences (as is obvious when you search the internet)
It’s best to come to this beautiful place and see for yourself. Yes it is totally safe, and yes you’ll have internet to use Google translate when you need it.