So we got to indulge in Aperitif s in Cagliari with the hoards of Christmas shoppers last night. The streets were filled with people and lit up with festive lights, it was a lovely atmosphere. It seemed everyone was drinking Aperol in the many restaurants and bars, so we thought we should join in with the cocktails. After a day of food on the run, we were seduced by one of the Aperitif boards, loaded with meats, cheeses, focaccia etc as we saw one delivered to a neighbouring table. We were then too full to go for a full dinner 🙄😋. So we had some more cocktails instead 😁🍸🍹
This morning we started with a reconnaissance mission to find the way to the ferry tomorrow. It involves some city centre driving and if the signage was as good as Barcelona we did not want to be circling the narrow town streets of Cagliari. We got to enjoy a nice walk along the waterfront though. Boarding route identified and fallback parking found, we headed into town.
Past the gothic looking, gilded town hall and along the main shopping street. However, our exploring was soon interrupted, as we passed a lovely old coffee shop about 200 yards up the road and had to go in for an espresso.
We carried on to the Christmas market in the centre of town with lots of wooden huts all selling various craft items. However, it just did not seem the same without mulled wine!
We had hoped to make amends on our dinner last night with lunch today. However, with 900+ restaurants in Cagliari we had reached analysis paralysis on the reviews. The mix of ecstatic to terrible, all for the same place. Top ratings for snack bar type food, really not matching our intentions. We decided to have a wander instead which was probably just as random and involved a fair bit of tracing and retracing our steps. Eventually we settled on a fairly traditional Italian menu at a smart enough looking restaurant. The food was delicious and the place was full by the time we left so we were happy with our choice. We got to tick off a couple of Sardinian specialities we had not tried too – Bottarga made from fish roe and Fregola a North African inspired couscous-like pasta.
I was quite excited to go off shopping for the afternoon, until I remembered that everything closes for siesta 🙄 So we have headed back to the van to digest our lunch via some views over the town from up the hill. Some more sightseeing to do later and perhaps another cocktail or two 😋
In for a Penney 