Question 1

Cagliari on Your Own

Accepted Answer

Cagliari is easy to see without a tour, because the port opens onto the city center and the old Castello quarter sits on the hill just above it. A simple plan is the Castello in the morning, a bus or taxi out to Poetto beach or the flamingo lagoons if there is time, and a return to the port well ahead of all-aboard. Up to the Castello: The Bastione di Saint Remy, a late-19th-century bastion on Piazza Costituzione, has wide stairways and a lift, and the top gives views of the city, the sea and the mountains. In the old town: The cathedral of Santa Maria on Piazza Palazzo dates from the 13th century, and inside is the Shrine of the Martyrs, cut into the rock. Two white limestone towers from the early 14th century, the Torre di San Pancrazio and the Torre dell'Elefante, still stand on the old walls. The archaeology museum: The Museo Archeologico Nazionale is at Piazza Indipendenza 7. A short ride: City buses and taxis run out to Poetto, and the Molentargius lagoons, where flamingos nest, lie just inland of the beach. Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own, so allow time for the port shuttle from the gate to your ship. Carry photo ID: Italian police can stop you at any time to check your identity, so keep photo ID with you. Pickpockets work in city centers and at major sights.

Question 2

Getting Around Cagliari

Accepted Answer

The center and the Castello are easiest to see on foot, and a lift at the Bastione di Saint Remy saves part of the climb. For Poetto, the lagoons or the airport, city buses, trains and taxis all start close to the port. CTM runs around 30 bus lines and 3 trolleybus lines in the city and nearby towns. Validate your ticket when you first board; the CTM app also sells tickets by card. Several city bus lines run out to Poetto, where each stretch of sand is known by the number of its bus stop, starting with the first stop by the small harbor of Marina Piccola. Taxi stands are in Largo Carlo Felice, Piazza Yenne and Piazza Matteotti, among other squares, and two radio taxi companies take phone bookings, one of them 24 hours a day. Trains from the station in Piazza Matteotti reach Cagliari-Elmas airport in about seven minutes. Driving is hard work here: the old quarters of Marina, Castello, Villanova and Stampace are limited traffic zones, and parking is difficult.

Question 3

What to Eat in Cagliari

Accepted Answer

Cagliari's cooking leans on the sea, with clams, mussels, sea urchins and bottarga, the cured fish roe, in many of its traditional dishes. Restaurants are spread through the old town, mostly along Via Sardegna and Via Napoli. Fregula cun cocciula is fregola with clams. Spaghetti with clams and bottarga, and spaghetti with sea urchins, are among the city's most famous pasta dishes, alongside malloreddus a sa campidanesa. Sa burrida a sa casteddaia is the Cagliari way of cooking dogfish. The city's cooking also shows Catalan and Ligurian influences.

Question 4

Tipping in Italy

Accepted Answer

Tipping is not customary in Italy, and waiters do not expect a tip, though they will not turn one down. Most restaurants charge a cover, the coperto, on the bill instead. If the service was special, a euro or two is plenty; a large tip is never expected. Leaving the change is common with taxi drivers. Prices are in euros.

Question 5

Castello, Archaeology, and the Phoenician Shore

Accepted Answer

Cagliari's past is easy to read in its buildings, from a Roman amphitheater on the hillside to the Castello's palaces and the eclectic facades along Via Roma. Outside the city, the ruins of Nora show the Phoenician and Roman town that came before. The Roman amphitheater, on Viale Sant'Ignazio west of the Castello, is known locally as Is Centu Scalas, the hundred steps. The Basilica of San Saturnino, on Piazza San Cosimo, grew from a 5th-century Christian complex, and its church, consecrated in the 11th century, is the oldest in the city. The Palazzo Regio in the Castello was the seat of the viceroys who governed Sardinia for the kings of Aragon and later of Spain. The Palazzo Civico, the white marble city hall near the port, was built in 1907 and rebuilt between 1946 and 1953 after wartime damage. Nora, on the Capo Pula headland west of Cagliari, was a Phoenician, then Punic and Roman town, and its remains include a forum, a theater, baths and houses. A stone found there, the Nora Stele, carries the oldest known written form of Sardinia's name. Every year on May 1, the feast of Sant'Efisio fills the center with a procession that keeps a vow made during the plague of 1652. The saint's statue is carried to his church at Nora and returns on May 4.

Question 6

Phoenicians, Romans, Pisans, and the Kingdom of Sardinia

Accepted Answer

Phoenicians founded Cagliari, Carthage and then Rome held it, Pisan merchants walled the hilltop, and the Crown of Aragon made it the capital of a new Kingdom of Sardinia. Phoenician Karaly, 8th to 7th century BC: Phoenician traders founded the town as one of a string of colonies in Sardinia, by the Santa Gilla lagoon west of today's center. Carthage and Rome: Carthage took control in the late 6th century BC, and Rome took Sardinia in 238 BC, after the First Punic War. Roman Caralis was at times the island's chief naval station and the seat of its governor. An early bishop: A Christian community is recorded by the 3rd century, and the city had a bishop by the end of it. The Judicate, about 1020 to 1258: Cagliari became the capital of a Sardinian state that grew independent, the Judicate of Cagliari, until Pisa and its allies overthrew it. Pisan Castel di Castro, 1215: Pisan merchants built a fortified town on the hill, Castel di Castro, which grew into the Castello quarter. Its two white limestone towers date from the early 14th century. Aragon, 1324 to 1326: The Crown of Aragon besieged the town from the hill of Bonaria, took it, and made it the capital of the new Kingdom of Sardinia, governed by a viceroy from the Palazzo Regio. Savoy, 1718: After a brief Habsburg rule, Sardinia passed to the House of Savoy. During the French Revolutionary Wars a French army landed on Poetto beach and was beaten back, and the revolt against Savoy rule that followed is remembered on Sa die de sa Sardigna, the last weekend of April. Growth and war: The city had 29,000 people by the 1840s and grew fast after the unification of Italy. Allied bombing in February 1943 killed more than 2,000 people and damaged about 80 percent of its buildings. To learn more ashore: The Museo Archeologico Nazionale, the national archaeological museum, is at Piazza Indipendenza 7.

Question 7

Cagliari with Children and Families

Accepted Answer

With children, a Cagliari day works well as a short climb and a long beach: the Castello in the morning, then Poetto or the flamingo lagoons in the afternoon. Taxis and city buses make both easy to reach from the port. Younger children: Take the lift at the Bastione di Saint Remy rather than the long stairways, and spend the afternoon at Poetto, where the beach clubs rent umbrellas and loungers and have showers and toilets. Flamingos: The Molentargius lagoons behind Poetto are a regional park and, in recent years, the most important flamingo nesting site in the Mediterranean, so bring binoculars. School age: Children can see the Pisan towers of the Castello and the Roman amphitheater on Viale Sant'Ignazio. Teenagers: If your call falls on May 1, the Sant'Efisio procession brings dozens of groups in traditional dress from all over Sardinia, hundreds of riders on horseback, and decorated carts drawn by oxen.

Question 8

Accessibility in Cagliari

Accepted Answer

The port, Piazza Matteotti and the center are close together by the water, but the Castello sits on a hill above them. Use the lift at the Bastione di Saint Remy rather than the stairways, and ask your ship about the shuttle from the gate. A shuttle bus runs between the ships and the port entrance. Piazza Matteotti, with taxis, the train station and the regional bus station, is about 190 meters from the port. The Bastione di Saint Remy has a lift as well as its stairways.

Question 9

Shopping in Cagliari

Accepted Answer

Most of Cagliari's shops are in a few areas of the center: Via Roma and Largo Carlo Felice, the pedestrian streets Via Manno and Via Garibaldi, and the streets around Via Alghero, Via Paoli and Via Dante. Via Roma is the street nearest the cruise terminal. Via Manno and Via Garibaldi are pedestrian streets.

Question 10

Beaches Near Cagliari

Accepted Answer

Poetto, Cagliari's city beach, runs for about 8 km from the Sella del Diavolo headland toward Quartu Sant'Elena, with the Molentargius lagoons behind it. Part of it is free, and part is run by beach clubs that charge for entry. Locals name the stretches of Poetto by their bus stop number, and the first stop is beside Marina Piccola, the small harbor under the Sella del Diavolo. The beach clubs rent umbrellas, loungers and sunbeds, clean the sand each night, and have showers and toilets. The name Poetto may come from a Catalan word for a small well, after the rainwater cisterns on the Sella del Diavolo, or from an Aragonese tower known as the Poet's Tower.

Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy

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