Pedra è... (It’s just stone…) 0 Comments

Pedra è... (It’s just stone…)

He, the husband, is passionate about everything being Nuragic. Each week he plans an itinerary that allows him to know the area more and more, discovering wonderful sites that excite him each time and when he returns home, he tries to share his joy and interest with his wife. But she, pragmatic, busy in a thousand matters, looks at him and calmly answers: "Pedra è" (It’s just stone).

The moment I heard the story, I smiled in amusement, but then the thought continued to whirl in my mind. When I came to Sardinia for the first time 40 years ago, I knew nothing at all about Nuragic sites. I let myself be enchanted by the sea and above all by its wonderful colours. Blue sea ... that blue of which Kandinsky, painter and cellist, said: "From a musical point of view,  light blue resembles a flute, dark blue a cello or, when it becomes deeper blue, the wonderful sound of the double bass; in its darkest and most solemn dimension it has the deep sound of an organ”. I was enchanted by the Mediterranean scrub, with its thousand scents and shades of green. The Sardinian Stones enchanted me, shaped by the wind and I wanted to see the famous Emerald Coast haunted by VIPs. And therefore: Porto Cervo: the heart of Costa Smeralda, Porto Rotondo: a Venetian town for VIPs,  Porto RafaelCastelsardo: the most beautiful borough in Italy, Olbia: a city for tourists and sea, sea, lots of sea. The pink beach of Budelli, The Maddalena ArchipelagoTavolara (see Discover Tavolara Island), and, again,  I knew nothing at all about Nuragic sites. 

Later it was the dry-stone walls (see A world's heritage: dry-stone walls) that made me discover the stones, the "Pedre". I was told that many of the stones used by the farmers to enclose their land were taken from the Nuragic sites, precisely because "Pedra è", an already modelled stone and ready for use. But rightly so! Identifying myself, perhaps I would have done the same. Because if no one has instilled pride in the Nuragic culture in you, stones are stones, or rather "Pedra è". And that was when I fell in love with those stones. Stones that sing (see Archeoacoustic), stones that have lived, stones that teach, stones that, knowing how to listen to them, tell the wonderful story of our Sardinia, being the Nuragic world a truly enchanted universe.

Today Sardinians are increasingly aware of their wonderful heritage and the whole world is appreciating it more and more. In fact, Sardinia is about to value its past by making it a World Heritage Site (see Sardinia Towards UNESCO). The inclusion in the World Heritage Site of the monuments of the Nuragic Civilization, Sardinia will be able to expand the seasonal trend of tourism throughout the year and not only in the summer months, with great benefit to the regional economy. New financial resources and human energies are necessary to protect the Nuragic heritage, a treasure still to be discovered and all to be protected, which is yet largely underestimated and unfortunately often abandoned to serious dangers of neglect and desecration.

The "Pedras" are therefore about to have their true immense value recognized by the world, so much so that we will hear "Pedra è ... but what a Pedra!"

"History is testimony of the past, light of truth, life of memory, teacher of life, herald of ancient times."  (Cicero)

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Written by Daniela Toti

In the photo: Tomb of the Giants Su Monte e S'Abe in Olbia - ph. taken from Sardegna Turismo website

 

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