Travel guide
Sardinia

The 12 keywords Sardinia

1. #Berger

Reputedly stubborn, shady, jealous, the shepherd sums up the Sardinian identity. He is the guardian of the culture, but also of his flock of sheep, another emblem of the island. Gifted with great wisdom, we owe him the proverb: "He who comes from beyond the seas is a thief". The Spaniards, who were once conquerors, described him as "crazy and a brawler".

2. #Cutlery

In Sardinia, the shepherd's best friend is the knife. Cutlery is elevated to the rank of art and a museum pays tribute to it in the small town of Arbus. The finest blades come from the village of Pattada, in Nuoro. Damascus steel or chiselled, handle made of sheep horn: the resolza (retractable knife) is still made by hand.

3. #Domus de Janas

Domus de janas means "house of the fairies" and it is by this poetic name that the Sardinians refer to the funeral circles of their Neolithic ancestors. They date back to a period extending from 4000 BC to 2700 BC. Legend has it that the janas were witches, sometimes malevolent, sometimes unfortunate, who lived in these houses.

4. #Limba

If the word sounds like a summer hit, it is in fact the Sardinian language. In the absence of a written set of rules, the Sardinian language has its own nuances, and even differences, depending on the region. Today it is the language closest to the one spoken by the Romans in ancient times. It is still spoken by 62% of the population

5. #Malloreddus

To taste the Sardinian pasta, you will turn to the malloreddus, also called locally cigiones, macarones caidos or cravaos. Made from durum wheat semolina, this pasta was traditionally made by hand by women on the occasion of important events. They are prepared in a tomato sauce and accompanied by sausage.

6. #Myrte

This berry, halfway between the blackcurrant and the blueberry, is not eaten. It is drunk as a black and syrupy liqueur as an aperitif or digestive. The Italians call it limoncello, the Sardinians call it murta. Each family has its own recipe and it is only recently that production has been "industrialized" to promote this typically Sardinian product.

7. #Nuraghe

More than 7,000 of these remains of the Nuraghic civilization, which reached its peak in the Bronze Age, remain. Archaeologists are still investigating the significance of these round or conical stone towers. Scattered throughout the island, the nuraghes probably had several functions: military, religious and astronomical.

8. #Passeggiata

This word alone sums up the Sardinian art of living and the best of social ties. At the end of the day, when the temperature drops, the Sardinians leave their homes, dressed to the nines, to stroll along the corso or the village piazza. They stroll with their families, before meeting up with friends, by chance or by habit, to chat for hours.

9. #Pecorino

"To try it is to adopt it. This is what the Sardinians must have said to themselves when they stole the recipe from the Romans who came to invade them. This 100% sheep's milk cheese, the oldest in Italy, has become an essential product on Sardinian tables. It has a Protected Designation of Origin, just like Fiore Sardo, its smoked version.

10. #Tanca

The Sardinian farmer erected dry stone walls around his plots of land, redrawing the contours of the plateaus and meadows into tiny plots of land. The Spaniards, inspired by these landscape patterns, gave them the name of tancas, which means closed or blocked. These tancas are still a characteristic landscape of Sardinia.

11. #Tenores

Polyphonic singing is a very old musical tradition in Sardinia. Practised in a four-man choir, it is characterized by its harshness and a form of obstinacy. The melodies are part of a melancholic repertoire that is transmitted orally. In the process of dying out, this type of singing is still in use in some villages of Nuoro.

12. #Tomb

The Nuragic civilization left tombs that the Sardinians have called Tombs of the Giants. The mausoleums of 5 to 10 meters long could contain more than a hundred bodies. The tomb consists of a corridor, often covered, at the end of which stands a row of monoliths placed in an arc and placed on edge.