Today we arrived in Cagliari (pronounced cal-arr-ee), the capital of Sardinia.

And what a fantastic place this is; I love it! Sardinia is Italian, and Italian it certainly feels; the drivers are like something out of Death Race 2000, and the shops in the town are 90% leather handbags and boots...

I'd not been given a tour today, which gave me the opportunity to go for a good long meander around the city, and what a city it is; there are fantastic old buildings and interesting corners at every turn. I took the shuttle bus to town (which was at least free this time) because the Port Authorities had declared that no-one be allowed to simply walk the short distance on account of our proximity to the Roll-on-Roll-off commercial ferry and the possibility of being mown down by an articulated truck, which seems fair enough.

The morning was hot as I made my way to the highest point of Cagliari; past the Botanical Gardens and the Roman Amphitheatre (which I was really looking forward to, but it appears to be covered in scaffolding). Beyond these attractions, the visitor finds themselves in the highest echelons of the city, surrounded by ancient castellations (I think that's a proper word) and some pretty awesome views.

It was up in the higher parts of the city that I chanced upon an artist's gallery, so I'm going to give a big 'up' to Giovanni Frigo (check him out at www.gfrigo.com), who I spent a very interesting 30 minutes or so chatting with before making my back down into the lower end of the town.

Being Sunday, the place was pretty quiet, and many of the shops were closed. This wouldn't normally bother me except that I was in search of something in particular; something of a delicate nature. Anyone of a similar disposition might like to skip the rest of this paragragh, since the items I was in search of were socks and underpants. It seems that my careful packing routine had been somewhat less than competent, since I have managed to come away with only 5 pairs of undies and 7 pairs of
socks. Things had been starting to get a little worrying, and i was beginning to think I might have to employ some sort of rotation system by which I might extend the life of those pairs I had brought with me; wear them the right way round one day, turn them back to front the next, and finally turn them inside out - or something to that effect. Anyway, you can imagine my frustration at discovering all these fantastic clothes shops in Cagliari, bursting with knickers; all closed because of it being Sunday! Relief came when I came across a shop called Zara, which seemed like an Italian version of Burtons. My relief was short-lived however, when I discovered that their underpants came in single packs, at a whopping 14.95euros each. Now, I might be a tight Northerner, but I'm sorry, I ain't paying almost 15-quid (cos the pound and the euro are pretty much 1-1 these days) for a single pair of undies!!! Anyway; I'm pleased to say, just as plan-B looked like becoming a stark reailty, I chanced upon a cheapo clothes shop that was actually open, and from where I could purchase said undergarments in bulk (I'm talking undies at 1 euro per pair, and socks at less than 50 pence per pair). Now that's my kind of price!

Having spent almost 4 glorious hours meandering around Cagliari, I returned to the Boudicca just in time for a cold salad lunch and an afternoon of chilling out and making use of my dongle to call home... I even pushed to a couple of cold beers to make the afternoon run even smoother!

We left Cagliari at just before 6, and turned to head towards Sicily.

Just a quick note: One thing I'm reaaally missing (apart from family and friends and Tracey, my lovely gorgeous girlfriend, who couldn't come with me this time around but will be accompanying me to the Baltic next year on the Balmoral) is a decent CUP OF TEA!!!! Don't get me wrong; tea is there to be had at all mealtimes and oft times in between, but the milk is that awful UHT stuff - yuuuuuuugh!!!!!! Needless to say, I'm sticking to the beer and orange juice - can't wait to get home and have a decent cuppa though....

Looks brilliant. Wish I was there. Never mind the tea, I am sure I can see a coffee shop in one of those photo's! ;)

Oh - Coffee Shops - they LOVE their coffee shops - there was an entire esplanade (think that's the word) absolutely bursting with 'em. Apparently, Italian Coffee is world renowned and much sought after (give us a cup of Tetley with semi-skimmed any day of the week...)