Sardinia

Wow! What an incredibly beautiful place! We had a fabulous weekend in Cala Gonone, but as usual the trip had a few hiccups that could only happen to us.

The plan was to get the train to a city north of Rome called Civitavecchia. They have a port where you can catch the ferries to Sardinia. We had already booked our tickets for the 8:30am ferry, and Charles checked the train schedule at Termini station and saw that our train left at 5:45am (ouch).

We arrived at Termini at about 5:15 and were a little confused to discover that our train was not on the board. We wandered around a bit and then on closer inspection we discovered that this particular train did not run on Saturdays. A quick panic came over us, because the next train would not get us to the port in time to make the boat.

We called Phil and told him the news. He said there should be a train leaving from the San Pietro station near his house that will get us there in time, if we could get to that station before it departed. We hustled to the subway and literally ran to the train station, making it just in time! Phew, one disaster averted.

The boat ride was pleasant enough, although there were a lot of noisy children and the seats weren't very comfortable for sleeping in. We arrived 30 minutes behind schedule, which in turn made us late to pick up our rental car.

At the port we asked how to get to the street where the rental car company was located, and we were told it was too far to walk and we would need to get a taxi. We waited or a cab (there is a real shortage of them in Olbia), and then we were driven literally 5 minutes to the location. We easily could have walked and not only would it have been faster than waiting for the cab, but it would have saved us 15 euros!

As we got to the car rental place (about 45 minutes past our appointment time), we discovered that it was not open. At first we were really angry, but we figured that it was siesta time and we should go grab some lunch and wait for them to reopen again around 4. While we were eating our paninis we tried calling the rental company several times to make sure that our car was there for us, but they didn't answer! We were beginning to get worried.

Back at the rental company a man finally showed up, only to tell us that their office closes at 1 on Saturdays. We explained that was impossible because we scheduled through the internet to pick our car up here at 2:30. He was very helpful and tried to find our reservation in his system, but it wasn't there. He suggested we try the airport, where the majority of the rental companies are located.

We took another (overpriced) taxi to the airport to get a car. It turns out that the company we rented from forwarded our rental to another agency because they don't have an office in Olbia any longer. That agency, in turn, did not forward our reservation to the first office we went to like they were supposed to. So, our car was in fact waiting for us at the airport this entire time. We were now about 3 hours behind schedule.

After all of this trouble we finally got the car and got on our way to Cala Gonone. We are happy to report that we didn't have any trouble at all finding the tiny resort town, and the drive was absolutely beautiful. That night we treated ourselves to a delicious seafood dinner (it was the best seafood we've had thus far), and then we went to a bar that was playing live music for a few drinks and to mingle with the locals.


The next day we woke up and went to the beach in front of our hotel. It was a nice beach, but there were rocks instead of sand, and the usual steady stream of Africans trying to sell you sunglasses or braid your hair. We decided to get into the car again and head to another beach that was a short drive away. This proved to be our best decision yet.

This other beach had gorgeous sand, clear blue waters, and no people trying to sell things! It wasn't too crowded, and the number of children was at a minimum. In summary we spent a fabulous afternoon lying in the sun and swimming in the crystal waters.

The next morning came too quickly! We had to get back to the port by 12 for our boat home. We left at around 9, and made the drive easily enough, but then we got lost trying to return the car to the rental company. We finally figured it out and had to hustle to the boat! We were literally the last people to board the ferry, and we almost didn't make it! And then, to top it all off, the ferry home was an hour and a half behind schedule! This meant we got home very late, and we were very hungry when we finally made it back.

But we made it, and although we had some troubles it was a fabulous weekend, and we definitely want to go back to Sardinia in the near future (and now we know how to do it without getting so mucked up)!