La Dame de Bonifacio

In our wanderings, we have often come across quirky exhibits in otherwise unremarkable museums.


Two of our earlier favourites were Bog Man in Denmark and Utzi the Ice Man in northern Italy. Today we visited La Dame de Bonifacio at the Museum in Levie, a small village in a very mountainous section of Corsica.

La Dame de Bonifacio came to her end about 7,923 years ago. She was about 1.54 metres tall and aged about 30 – 35 years old. Her complete skeleton was discovered on 14 July 1972.

Researchers have discovered that she had major medical problems to such an extent that she must have been cared for by her community.

She looked very peaceful resting in her glass case and her end would have been far more peaceful than that of Iceman or Bog Man.

                                            At rest after 7,923 years.

Beautiful, Beautiful Bonifacio

The ferry only took one hour from Sardinia to Corsica and by midday we had our accommodation and were exploring the town.
We are staying down in the harbour district, one of the most beautiful, small harbours you could imagine. The high cliffs are pure white and the water is aquamarine. Perched high above the harbour is the “upper town” which is the old town. Steep roads and lots of steps to the drawbridge where we crossed into what was once the only entry into the town. At every turn, there are views down to the harbour. It is truly beautiful.
The old town was very pleasant to walk through. We sat and had lunch of local fare and local vino, walked the narrow streets, visited the markets, visited 2 churches including the one where Napoleon’s brother was baptized, saw a house where Napoleon stayed during a campaign and just revelled in the atmosphere.
We walked back down to the marina and decided to eat dinner locally as it was too hard to walk back up all those steps to the old town. Before dinner, however, we enjoyed some local wine and cheese.

We are picking up our car in the morning, ready to explore Corsica.

                                         Cliffs of Bonifacio viewed from the old town.

                                        Every direction has a wonderful view.

                                                  Resting on the way up from the harbour to the old town.

Goodbye Sardinia, Hello Corsica

We leave Santa Teresa this morning on the 10 am ferry and arrive in Bonifacio in Corsica in the early afternoon.

We have booked a car to pick up on Wednesday midday and plan to drop it off in Bastia in the north.

We have loved Sardinia and are now looking forward to new adventures in Corsica.

Golfo di Orosei to Costa Smeralda

After swimming in the Gulf on arrival yesterday, we headed to its northern limit today and looked back at the splendid sight of the mountains reaching down to the sea. The area is so rugged that except for a few places, the coast can only be reached from the sea.


Following the road north, it headed inland and we stopped at the Grotta Ispinigoli. This is a marvelous cave system and is entered by steps from the top straight down into the cavern – over 500. The system has Europe’s largest stalagmite, the world’s 2nd or 3rd largest. This is one of the best caves we have ever seen. They have good conservation practices in place with limited tours to maintain the dark environment. Just no photos allowed!

We continued up the coast eventually reaching the Costa Smeralda with its incredible array of hotels, luxury homes and billion dollar yachts. In many places it was hard to see the coast because of the development.

Finally we arrived at Santa Teresa.  We return our car tomorrow and catch the ferry to Corsica on Tuesday.  Details of our food experiences tomorrow.

The Costa Smeralda attracts the ultra rich.  We moved on!

The incredible gulf.

West to East

We crossed from the west coast to the east coast today through the incredibly mountainous terrain. We stopped more Neolithic burial sites, further Nuraghi towers and finally reached the former bandit territory.


In Nuoro, we drove to the top of a mountain where there is a statue of Christ, one of 19 built in Italy in 1901 to mark 19 centuries of Christianity. We lunched in style in a mountain top restaurant on typical Sardinian mountain food.

We stayed the night at Cala Gonone on the Gulf of Oriestino. Our room had commanding views of the mountains from the back balcony and the gulf from the front balcony. We swam and relaxed after a hard day for us but an even harder day for our little car.

                                           Robert in Tomb 8

                                        On top of Monte Ortobene

                                     Which way to Oliena?

                                                   Robert salutes the bandits in Oliena.

Just How Much Can You Fit in a Day?

After breakfast, we drove to the Necropoli di Anghelu with 38 tombs carved into rock dating from 2700 BC to 3300 BC. We were able to crawl into the chambers and we could just make out bulls horns carved on the walls of some chambers.


Next we visited Sardinia’s top wine producer, Sella e Mosca. We have already drunk the bottle of frizzante and have a few bottles ready to chill at a future destination.

Back on the coast, just 10 km away, we visited the Nuraghe di Palmavera, a 3500 year old Bronze Age settlement. It was not as extensive as Su Nuraxhi that we had visited a few days ago but we recognized the same layout as we crawled in through the tunnels.

We drove to Porto Torres and then back to Spiaggia delle Bombarde where we enjoyed a refreshing swim. This is regarded as the best local beach with its aquamarine water, sandy beach, facilities and restaurants.

We drove back into Alghero, put our wine in the frig for later, enjoyed lunch and a rest before setting out again.

To visit Neptune’s Grotto, you can go by boat or drive and then walk down the 656 steps. Guess which we chose? The cave system is immense and we spent an hour on a tour. It was spectacular – world standard. Not the best conservation practices in place perhaps.

Back to the harbour, we walked up to the cathedral, which is very interesting as it retains strong Catalan influence.

We returned to the B & B and polished off our frizzante, Aliante Isola dei Nuraghi.

Out to dinner, followed by a stroll through the old town and the harbour front, which had a real Friday night buzz.

One of the tombs at the site.

Looking for Robert.

The remains of the central tower in the bronze Age village.

Coming out of the tower.

Neptune's Grotto

The belltower of the duomo as we returned from the grotto

Three for the Price of One

We headed off to Tharros, a Roman town built on top of a Phoenician town which in turn had been built on the site of an earlier Nuragic village from the Bronze Age – 15th century BC. The Phoenicians came in the 8th century BC.


In places the Roman settlement had been removed to display the earlier Phoenician site. It is only quite recently that the stone houses from the earliest period have been discovered. Quite a fascinating look at history and once again in a spectacular coastal setting.

We followed our exploration with visits to two museums to see the actual artefacts from the archaeological site.

Tharros had been the major town in this area but once Orestano - now the province’s capital – was developed, it lost its significance and was eventually abandoned.

We managed to negotiate the complex maze of narrow streets to reach the old part of Orestano – Centro Storico – and visited the Duomo with its beautiful onion domed bell tower, the main square with Queen Eleanor’s statue – obviously before she died of the plague - and the incredible old defence tower sitting in the middle of a square.

Leaving the highways behind us, we followed the minor coastal road north, stopping for lunch at a beachside restaurant at Torre Su Putu and visited a fabulous growers’ market – where we sampled some very nice local cheese and nougat.

Continued along the winding, narrow road, through quiet villages and eventually reached Bosa, known for its colourful buildings where we visited the marina and the beach. We decided to fit in one more leg so drove northwards.

The road between Bosa and Alghero is considered to be the best coastal drive in Sardinia. It was truly spectacular with stunning views – it was also one of the windiest roads we have ever been on! Again we negotiated the maze of streets and found a car park just outside Centro Storico. We found a B & B in the old town, run by a very pleasant family.

Dinner was in a fabulous restaurant where we sampled traditional Sardinian food. Football fever has hit town as Italy played Germany in the semi final of the European Cup. When Italy won, the entire town erupted and the festivities continued well into the early morning. The final is on Sunday night between Spain and Italy.

Remains of a temple in Tharros

The 2 explorerson the Roman road in Tharros





The duomo and belltower in Orestano.



Waiting for lunch.