Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy on Easter Sunday

Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy on Easter Sunday Last night we had a delicious steak dinner. Yes, we paid extra to go to the steak restaurant. This cruise has various places to eat. The “free” ones are very large and serve many meals so it is quite noisy. There are several other small restaurants that require reservations and a “cover” charge. Other than the cover charge, the meals are provided except for the wine. Food in these restaurants seems to be a notch above - well, it should be - right. Anyway, we all splurged and had a good time. After, we stopped by the star lounge for the end of an excellent show. Then Pete and I went to another lounge where there is a dance floor. We had to dance one dance just to report that we did indeed dance. There were only two other couples dancing and they must have been taking lessons at home. They were quite good and just watching gave me a work out. This morning we left the ship for a short tour of Cagliari. Cagliari is a very small city but5 has a very active port. The history here is also hectic: It was settled millenia ago a couple of times. Then in 800 BC it was settled by the Phoenicians. In 500 BC the Carthaginians occupied Cagliari, they were defeated by the Romans in 238 BC. Then there were the Goths and Vandals, Bizentines. Then the Muslims in about 533 AD until the beginning of the 11th century. In 1016 the Muslims were defeated by the the Bizentines, 1198 a change, 1323 another, then in 1707 it was ruled by Spain. In 1720 the Pope gave it to the Duke of Savoy who became king. 1770 it became a part of Italy under one of the Savoy Kings. 1946 it was made a republic by Italy. You have to believe all of this or look it up for yourself. I’m not certain of all of the dates. Our guide today was absolutely amazing with all of the information and dates and species of birds and plants and history of all of the area and buildings. It was hard to keep up with him. There are lots of Flamingos here now. In 1997 or so they stopped migrating from here and stayed for some reason. At that time there were about 7000 now there are about 40,000. The island makes salt from the sea, there used to be silver mines, they farm in the sea, oysters, mussels and clams. The buildings are, of course, very beautiful. The modern ones, they were shelled during the 2nd world war, are not so beautiful. The island is very green with lots of palm trees and jacaranda trees and many pines. Tomorrow is Palarmo. I think tonight I will go to the casino, Ciao!!!