From the 8th to the 24th July, 2008: 10th Festival of Dromos ” Donne D’Altrimari ” - a gift to the women of this world

For the tenth time, the Cultural Department of the City of Oristano, in cooperation with the municipalities of San Vero Milis and Nurachi are holding the multifaceted cultural event of Dromos Festival.
The programme covers most of the month of July from the 8th to the 24th and is the heart of music, photos, film, poetry and art. The concerts, the main event of this edition, let the audience plunge in the world of women. The most important visitors are Carla Bley with her quartet The Lost Chords, the Yemeni singer Noa Genes and the legendary singer of the Buena Vista Social Club Omara Portuondo, bringing the flair of femininity close and jamming between jazz, bossa nova, Filin, and Soul.

 

Not forgetting to mention also the known jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, who with her voice beguiles the hearts of the listeners. And the musicians like Paolo Fresu, with the poet Michela Murgia and the serenades and concerts of the jazz musicians of Gavino Murgia & Francesco Sotgius and Armeria Briganti, bringing the ethnic musical feel to the Dromo festival.

Lots of music, but not only! Photos of women like “Maria” of the Turkish artist Pinar Yolaçan or documentaries such as “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi and a review of the women from Nurachi. This overwhelming exhibition is filled with plenty of interesting moments of contemporary jazz and art with a performance by the South African singer Simphiwe Dana, leaving you unspoilt for choice.

 

For info about accommodations around Oristano visit www.holidays-in-sardinia.com

For more info about the festival www.dromosfestival.it

 

10th to 16th August 2008 XXI Festival ‘Time in Jazz’ “Arkitekturae”

A Highlight of the jazz festivals in Sardinia, is also this year the combination of music and art of Time in Jazz. The most important jazz festival of the island takes place from the 10th to the 16th of August in the wine village of Berchidda. It was initiated in 1988 by the most famous trumpeter of Sardinia: Paolo Fresu, who was born in 1961 in Berchidda. The Sardinian musician belongs to the varied and most Melodic of the European jazz scene..
Apart from his soft and harmonious trumpet sounds in August there are also three other European jazz stars to hear: Steve Coleman, Uri Caine and Don Byron. Other guests attending the festival are Funk Off, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier, Chris Speed, Jim Black, Ernst Reijseger, Giovanni Sollima, Larissa Groeneveld, Gavino Murgia, the ‘Tenores di Orosei’, Ornella Vanoni and Paola Turci..
The scenes of the concerts and events are all over the village, but also other locations, for instance Olbia, Ozieri, Tempio Pausania, Oschiri, Monti, Pattada and Nughedu San Nicolò. Adding to the numerous jazz concerts and presentations from other music directions, there are also many exhibitions from the most different areas of art. The leitmotiv of the festival this year is the architecture.

For information about accommodations around the event: holidays-in-sardinia.com
For more information about the event: Time in Jazz, Berchidda (OT), Telephone: +39/079/703007, E-Mail: info@timeinjazz.it, Web: www.timeinjazz.it

The month of June in Sardinian language is called ‘Lampasas’, small lamps, which in the form of bonfires illuminate the dark sky in the night between the 23 and the 24 of June in many places on the island. This is to commemorate ‘Jubanne Santu’, the patron saint of the shepherds. The Saint is celebrated in Alghero, Assemini, Armungia, Domusnovas, Carloforte, Gesturi, Lunamatrona, Portoscuso, Pula, San Giovanni Suergiu, Bauladu, Ghilarza, Bonarcado, Milis, Nurachi, Bosa, Dorgali, Escala Plano, Fonni, Gavoi, Bono, Bonorva, Budduso, Chiara Monti, Mara, Monti and Olbia.

Usually after the processions, dedicated to the religious festivity, folkloric presentations take place with dances, games, contests and big ceremonial banquets. This is also found during the festivity to honour Santu Jubanne. 

 

The most important religious festival of the month is however Corpus Domini. The festival is held on the second Sunday after Pentecost (the Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter). Only a few places in Sardinia celebrate this profound religious festival. Mainly in the Barbagia probably because in this region religion plays still an important part of life. The villagers of Desulo and Fonni participate seriously and solemnly in their national costumes during the processions and religious rituals. In addition, they celebrate this festival in Tertenia, Ales, Arborea and Ploaghe. In Arborea the main street of the city centre are decorated with colourful flowers’ carpets in the shape of religious motives. In Ploaghe they have a procession of men carrying two huge decorated candles with wood cravings.

 

Corpus Domini, Fonni
National costumes and Traccas (decorated carts) are the main characters of the celebrations to honour Sant’Antonio da Padova on the 13th June in Santadi, Arbus, Fluminimaggiore, Uras, Segariu, Esterzili, Jerzu, Macomer, Nurri, Tonara, Cabras, Busachi, Mores, Nule, Palau, Ploaghe, Sorso and Trinità d’Agultu. Particularly impressive is the procession to honour Sant’Antonio a Mare in Bosa on the 29 of June. The procession reaches the church of Saint Peter in the valley of Temo.

San Pietro is celebrated on 29 June also in Gavoi, Nurallao, Ollolai, Perdasdefogu, Buggerru, Carloforte, Monastir, Nuraminis, Quartu Sant’Elena, Villa San Pietro, Baratili San Pietro, Neoneli, Terralba and Zuri.

If you want to know more about Sardinia and its Culture go to Holidays-in-Sardinia.com

 

Once we got at the harbour of Palau, an overwhelming tourist port in the North of Sardinia with a lot of different companies that offer different tours around the islands of the Archipelago, we found our boat ‘Squalo IV’ (literally Shark the fourth, maybe from the Italian title of the homonymous Steven Spielberg Movie sequel ’Jaws: The Revenge’).

 

We were welcome inside the boat by one of the crewmembers that we later discovered he was also the very skillful chef. The boat itself is entirely made of laminates of wood and also the interiors are keeping the same wood finish.

It is very big in size compare to the rest of the cruises at the harbor and we’ve been informed that it is the biggest around and for this reason it’s also used by big financial, insurance and media companies for incentives, but also as a private boat for the rich and famous of the Costa Smeralda.

 

In about twenty minutes the boat filled up with all sort of tourists, mainly Italian families, and we started our well-awaited trip. Soon as we left the port the surroundings changed rapidly, surprising us with their best impressions.

We cruised by Santo Stefano Island, still an American Military base until the end of the year; looking back we could see the recognizable symbol of this coastline and Palau itself, The Bear Rock (’Roccia dell’Orso’) chiseled to this shape by the winds. It thrones the top of a hill functioning like a guard of the harbor and the ‘Gallura’ region.

Our first stop was at la Maddalena Village just the time to pick up more tourists, but gave us a good view of the characteristic town with a rich history as a commercial port. In fact this was in the older days the main port of the region, here all the goods used to arrive first and were then distributed to the rest of the ‘Gallura’.

 

We then headed up to our first real stop ‘Spargi’ Island, a beautiful rocky island with a thick juniper forest and some amazing sandy bays with crystal clear azure waters. Here it’s where the media production finds the best location to recreate the Caribbean Islands for their adverts. It is an idyllic spot and it was really hard to resist of having a swim, but unfortunately we didn’t think of bringing a pair of trunks.

We got back aboard still drunk of all the beauty around us just in time for lunch, freshly made by the crew. Seafood lovers are obviously well look after with the great local choice and I rather feel sorry for who is not into fish because sadly gets a plate of Spaghetti with olive oil and parmesan cheese, we should not forget though that it could be an advantage to eat a light meal while you are cruising.

 

The boat smoothly got to our next stop but this could rather have been one of the effects of the chilled Vermentino wine.

The next stop was Porto Della Madonna (named after a fisherman and not the Virgin Mary or the pop star either). The port is more like a lagoon in the midst of three islands, that work as an impressive panoramic view, a mix of rocky coastlines, beautiful white sandy beaches, azure to dark blue waters and the few yachts here and there.

We stayed here for about three hours, which gave us plenty time to enjoy the breathtaking sights and taking great pictures, even if the weather was not always on our side.

 

We got back on our boat and cruise to our next stop. Before reaching the spot the boat went past the North side of the main island of the archipelago ‘La Maddalena’, this stretch of sea is more in the open sea and with lots of wind against we had some thrilling moments. Luckily no one on board had any close encounter with the ‘White Paper Bag’.

We arrived then to our last stop in the channel between ‘La Maddalena’ and ‘Caprera’, the island where Garibaldi - a national hero- was exiled and died. This was also the last chance to have a dive before we ended our tour in Palau, tired by all the beauty we’ve seen and sad of leaving for the ‘Terra Ferma’.  

 

For more info and accommodation around Palau contact the team of Holidays-in-Sardinia.com

Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement, defined this new cuisine with the following terms “Buono, pulito e giusto”. Italian for good, clean and fair.
It all started in 1986 with the opening of a McDonalds outlet in Rome. Carlo Petrini and other like-minded friends have seen the opening of a fast food outlet in the Eternal City as an attack against the diversity and originality of regional and Italian cuisine. Under the good auspices of the snail, the distinguishing feature of the Slow Food movement, they are thriving since then for slow eating and enjoyment of food, and they celebrate with that the joy of cooking and discovery. Ultimately they challenge the food industry that local products and ancient varieties make a much more pleasurable meal in the full respect of nature.

Good, clean and fair is the motto of Slow Food: What we eat should taste good, but also
be good to the environment and our own health and not harm the producers that should
be given a fair wage for their work. 

No ready-meals, but regional products whose origin the consumer understand, no cloned beef or lamb roasts, no genetically modified corn or tomatoes these are the main concept of the Slow Food followers on the table. The growing demand for regional and high-quality food from the farm, which is carefully prepared, shows that Slow Food is the ever more followed new trend and certainly influences the lives of tomorrow in nutritional science.
Start your own campaign by supporting products with authentic character, made following traditional or natural methods.
In Sardinia many producers are still attached to the methods past by their ancestor for example the Vermentino wine, Pecorino cheese or olive oil. Each of them ensures quality and gives extra value to the product.
On the island many farmers combine their products with offer of lodging as well as tasting or a visit to the farm grounds. These particular accommodations are called Agriturismo and are very popular with holidaymakers who want an eco-sustainable vacation.

For ideas of holidays in an Agriturismo (Farm stay) contact the team of Holidays in Sardinia

To be part of the ever-growing Slow Food community go to their website www.slowfood.com