“We are Sardinians. We are Spaniards, Africans, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Pisani, Byzantines, Piedmontese. We are the golden-yellow broom that showers onto rocky trails like huge lamps ablaze. We are the wild solitude, the immense and profound silence, the brilliance of the sky, the white flower of the cistus. We are a land of long silences, of horizons vast and pure, of plants glum, of mountains burnt by the sun and vengeance. We are Sardinians.”
— “We Are Sardinians” by Grazia Deledda1
Dear readers,
I rarely return to the same holiday destination, yet a few weeks ago I took my third trip to Sardinia in as many years. I've been wanting to write about what keeps drawing me back, but something felt missing.
Each visit brings me a little closer to understanding the “real” Sardinia. Yet, much like being a “long-term visitor” in France (so says my visa), I know it would take years, perhaps decades, to truly understand the island’s history, language, culture, food and fiercely independent identity.
So rather than offer you just my limited perspective as a visitor, I invited someone who knows the island from the “Inside,” as it were.
Giulia C., a born-and-raised Sardinian and the writer behind The Inside Pocket, generously agreed to share her perspective on the island she still considers home. Together, we’ve woven our two viewpoints into one conversation: hers as a local, and mine as a returning visitor.
If your search history has convinced you that Sardinia begins and ends with the Costa Smeralda, Giulia and I are here to broaden the map. Guilia shares the inland villages, traditions, festivals, food and landscapes that many visitors never experience, while I add my own favourite discoveries from three summers exploring the island.
Irene: Tell me about your childhood in Sardinia.
Guilia: I was born and raised in Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean. Sitting almost perfectly in the middle of the sea, it stretches for about 270 kilometres from north to south, with rugged mountains, crystal-clear beaches and what I still like to think of as wonderfully untouched nature. I grew up in Sassari, the island’s second largest city, in the northwest.
Like any good Italian family stereotype, I was never short of relatives. My mum’s side of the family comes from a tiny village just outside Sassari, so I grew up moving between two very different worlds. During the week I had city life, and on weekends I was surrounded by village traditions, long family lunches, homemade everything, and the unmatched feeling that someone was always looking after someone else.
IK: Up until fairly recently, most Italians grew up speaking a regional language or dialect as their mother tongue. That most are mutually unintelligible is astounding to me, while also saying so much about Italy’s history before unification. What language did you grow up speaking: Italian, Sardinian, or something else?
GC: Italian is, of course, our official language, but Sardinian is still spoken across much of the island (there are actually four different types), and thanks to my grandparents I had the privilege of growing up with it.
One thing many people don’t know is that Sardinian isn’t a dialect. It’s officially recognized as its own language and remains one of the Romance languages closest to Latin. To me, it’s one of the greatest gifts my grandparents left me. Every language has its own way of describing the world, and I truly believe Sardinian shaped how I see and name the world.
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