For three of the past five years we've been in Italy in the early autumn, us and many Germans. Given that the shortest distance between German and Italian frontiers is a mere 30 miles through the Austrian Tyrol I suppose this is to be expected. What is puzzling are the number of families on holiday with school age children
The reason for this was explained to us some years ago by a chatty Mütter mit Kinder we ended up sitting beside on a ferry from Elba. Like in France, German regions stagger the six week school summer break, some commencing in the first week of July, the others with later start dates up until the end of the month. Consequently, the two week autumn half term is staggered from late September until the end October. This means that any touristy spot you happen to visit in Italy during early autumn is likely to be crowded with holidaying German families.
This is not in itself a problem, but it can have unforeseen consequences. We booked into Baia Holiday Laguna Blu campsite about 5kms from Alghero. It's enormous, with 500 pitches and hundreds of bungalows, more of a resort than a campsite with lots of sports facilities and a waterpark.
Not our thing, but choice is limited in the shoulder season and we wanted to revisit Alghero.
The site is in an attractive situation, across the road from Fertilia beach, located on an umbrella pine covered isthmus with the sea on one side and the lagoon-like Stagno di Calich on the other.
It would be ideal for paddleboarding, sadly it's a protected area. The campsite looks more peaceful than it actually is. The noise pollution should have been obvious if we'd engaged our brains when we looked at it on Google maps. The distance from our pitch to the end of Alghero airport's runway - about 2km! Luckily it's not a particularly busy airport.
However, aircraft noise is not the salient issue. When we researched reviews of the site. - which were mostly positive - one complained of noise from a nearby music venue - particularly during the Oktoberfest. We should have taken note, as we booked in the receptionist gave us a flyer advertising the event which was in full swing throughout the three days of our stay.
It's not surprising we took little notice of this because the booking procedure took forever and was very involved. There were multiple forms to complete, our acsi card was retained as security then finally a blue plastic bracelets attached to our wrist.
The Republic of China's immigration control at Shanghai airport was lax in comparison to the entry requirements here.
Distracted by the shenanigans we failed to address the most obvious question - why is there an Oktoberfest in Sardinia? The answer I guess is that enough folks from the Bundersrepublic descend on the place to make it worthwhile for Munich's Paulaner brewery to sponsor an outreach event in Alghero.
It seems to consist of a series of concerts in Anfiteatro Ivan Graziani, which as you can see from another Google maps screenshot is exactly 560m from our pitch.
The music is inescapable from 7pm until midnight, an eclectic mix of styles from folksy oirish pop, a dash of disco leaning Eurotrash to bland American- as-apple-pie middle-of-the-road rock.
Even worse are the daily sound checks starting in the early afternoon. Mic-ing up the drum kit seems to take at least half an hour, each part of the kit - hi-hat, snare, tomtoms requires repeated mega decibel testing. Special attention is lavished on the bass drum seemingly channelled through a giant super-woofer which weaponises its thud so even at half a kilometre distance it resonates physically. Inevitably once the kit is set up some roadie or other can't resist the temptation to exorcise his inner John Bonham by entertaining the neighbourhood with ten minutes of frantic licks - more Animal than Led Zep. It's all a bit nerve shredding.
The answer is get off the site as much as possible - we are here is to revisit Alghero, We spent a week here at Easter in the late noughties. When exactly became a matter of discussion - either 2007 or 2008 was our best guess. A memorable experience helped us decide. We had rented an apartment in the heart of the walled old town, its balcony overlooking an old square with a café - a people spotters paradise!
An Italian general election was imminent, the town was covered with posters. On Sunday morning a gaggle of people in Forza Italia tee shirts spread out across our square posting even more. Then a municipal flatbed truck arrived with barriers to block off traffic and lots of police appeared, not just local ones but military looking types with machine guns. Gaggles of people headed across the square on the way to somewhere else, it looked intriguing, so we decided to join them.
A stage had been set in nearby piazza, euro pop blasted from speakers strapped to lamp-posts, Forza Italia flags fluttered everywhere and an MC attempted to hype-up the crowd in high octane Italian, then the Europop volume notched up, the crowd went nuts and just visible above the scrum people in front of us the top of the head of a small balding man appeared on stage. It's the nearest I've ever been to a head of state, a glimpse of Silvio Berlisconi, surrounded by his posse of lanky long haired blondes, there to provide immoral support. This nailed the date of our last visit, Wikipedia confirmed that there was an election in Italy in April 2008.
It was a moment of excitement In an otherwise relaxed and laid-back week. That's how I remembered Alghero, a sunny, quiet ancient walled city.
When we cycled into it yesterday we discovered a different aspect to the place, more of a low key Mediterranean resort with a big white sand beach and beautiful umbrella pines on the low dunes
As for the old walled city, it's definitely not quiet these days. I suppose it would be fanciful to imagine it would be given Alghero is well connected by budget airlines to major European cities. Since we were here last Airbnb has blossomed, it should have been no surprise that after we had locked our bikes up by one the old gates when we walked into the old town we joined a scrum of fellow tourists.
The difference came as a culture shock. We remembered the Alghero of 2008 fondly, as a beautiful old city, a little sleepy, a tad crumbling, and aside from our brief engagement with Silvio Berlisconi, a little disconnected from modernity. Today the old streets were crowded, it restaurants overflowing and most shops selling tourist tat. I guess in our tik tok curated world that is just how things are.
Luckily the well reviewed pizza place that Gill had found online had one table free, we managed to squeeze onto it.
I went for a classic with bufalo mozzarella, Gill opted for something more spicy. They were ok, you rarely are going to find a disappointing pizza in Italy, but if you want an amazing one, Napoli is the place to go not Sardinia.
Just down the road was a gelateria, well you just have to don't you.
We decided to seek out the promenade that skirts around the edge of the ancient city on top of the walls. It was much less crowded than the narrow streets. We remembered that it had old cannons, we have some video of Laura sitting on top of one. They have been joined now by a couple of replica trebuchets.
It's a nice place to stroll with a panoramic view out to sea and a backdrop of Alghero's ochre coloured historic centre.
Restaurants and cafés line the esplanade. Since we'd already eaten we stopped in one for a couple of macchiata. Alghero is a very beautiful place, reminiscent of Gallipoli, we observed.
Sadly, the place is edging towards over tourism, it all felt a bit souless. Maybe our most abiding memory will be the gelateria down a side street halfway between the campsite and the city centre. Oops Gelato! we stopped by twice.
Gill reckoned the marshmallowy chocolate lemony caramelish concoction she had on our second visit was the best gelato she'd ever had...
Even better than Cremeria San Stephanie in Bologna? We are planning to stop there on our way home just to check
In the end three nights here was more than enough. The Oktoberfest's final concert ran from 1pm until well past midnight. Almost twelve hours of thumping bass left us feeling frazzled and exhausted. It was a relief to leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment