Be Mine

We spent the first few days in Cagliari settling in, starting classes, and spending our free Saturday at Poetto, a beach just outside of the city, soaking up the sun.

We all boarded a bus bright and early on Sunday morning for our first overnight excursion. After a bumpy bus ride and a few wrong turns, we unloaded at our first stop for a tour of a mine at Porto Flavia. The walk from the parking lot to the mine entrance was all uphill, but the views made it a bit easier to handle.

Il Pan de Zucchero (Sugarloaf), one of several limestone sea stacks rising from the water

Upon arrival, we were greeted with every civil engineer's favorite accessory - a bright yellow hard hat.

After many photos, we gathered around our guide for a tour of the mine at Porto Flavia. In the 1920's, Porto Flavia revolutionized the method of shipping mined materials from the southwest region of Sardinia. At the time, common practice was to haul minerals down to the beach, load them into small boats, and use the small boats to transfer the minerals to large ships farther out at see. Instead of this long, laborious process, engineers made use of the steep cliffs and calm sea at Porto Flavia and dug an opening directly into the side of the cliff 50 m above the water. By using two tunnels and a mechanical arm, minerals could be transferred directly onto the ships.

At the end of the tour, we slowly meandered our way down the hill, stopping to take photos and make a new furry friend.

Of course, we couldn't help but cool off a bit in the sea before continuing our adventures.

Next stop, the ancient Temple of Antas.