Neptune's Grotto - 1308 stairs - So Hungry I ate a Horse

Sadly, our day started off with some unfortunate news - our planned catamaran trip on Monday was canceled due to a forecast of high winds.  The only option for rescheduling was going to be three days after we depart Stintino.

We were going to have to make the best of our situation, the vacation must go on - time to get some exercise and enjoy the view from Capo Caccia.  From here, we would have to conquer the 654 stairs to Neptune's Grotto (Grotta di Nettuno).

Breakfast

Street in Stintino

The stairs, it starts

Originally founded by local fishermen, the Grotto is a cave full of mineral stalactites located on the west coast of Sardinia.  The cave is used mainly for tourism and has daily tours given in Italian and English for 13 Euro - definitely worth the price of admission.  The only issue of having to start your day by going down 654 stairs is knowing that you have to end your visit with the ascent.  After mastering all the steps of Capo Caccia, we figured the rest of our day would be best spent relaxing on a beach.



While driving to one of the beaches, we stopped in a small town to grab a bite to eat at one of the two local bistros.  We had no choice but to order paninis because the pizza oven didn't go on until early evening - Julie had pollo and I arbitrarily picked cavallo.  Our energy was restored, now we just needed to find a beach where we could vegetate.

More mineral deposits

View half way up

View at the bottom

Conveniently, there were two beaches within a ten minute drive, we drove to both - the first didn't really appeal to us, but the second suited us better.  While parking, I had an inpatient, middle-aged Italian man shake his fist in anger as Fifi #2 struggled to turn around in the small parking lot.  Instead of this jackhole backing out allowing me to reverse, he slowly inched closer.  My guess, it was Guiseppe Slingtino - the jackhole that shot his Hawaiian sling in our general direction while swimming off the shore of La Pelosa.  The beach was great, but the water was far colder than the previous day (other side of Sardinia) and the surf was getting rough with the increasing heavy winds - no wonder our catamaran trip was going to be canceled.

View on drive to lunch from Capo Caccia

For dinner we found a great restaurant in Stintino that had good food and an excellent view of the harbor.  Conveniently, the restaurant had wireless internet, allowing us to use a phone to help translate anything that looked unfamiliar.  As Julie perused the menu, she mentioned, "don't get the cavallo, that is horse meat."  I replied, "Oh, that's what I had for lunch," I suppose after all those stairs I was so hungry that I did eat a horse.  Not wanting to double up on my horse portions for the day, I steered clear of anything containing Barbaro - ordering pescore frishe instead.  The fresh catch of the day was a sea bass (not Chilean, we are in Sardinia, there are other sea basses in the sea).  My meal came out and it contained the whole fish - not a problem, but it perplexed  me as to the best approach for eating.

Streets of Stntino

Street sunset in Stintino

Festival time

I am used to seeing food and going fork to food to mouth - now I had a fish head and scales in my way, not to mention - but really mention, the bones inside.  The fish was delicious with exception to the one bone I swallowed.  Julie had a delicious pizza and I was able to finish what she couldn't.  If only I could send pictures of my horse meat and fish meals to that snarling Dutch waitress in Amsterdam that castigated me like a xenophobe.

View from restaurant

fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum!!!*

We returned to our apartment and saw chairs being set-up in front of the stage, but were unsure what evenings festivities awaited.  While ending the evening on the balcony with a bottle of wine, I saw that the time was 22:30 and nothing had started.  However, a half hour later, the stage speaker sounded with a welcoming shriek of high-pitched feedback.

Dammit.  What awful music performance will tonight hold?   It's the last night, therefore; my assumption suggest the best act.  My fingers were crossed for Barnes and Barnes*, they would undoubtedly be better than anything to have graced the stage all weekend.  Please listen to their lyrical masterpiece, "Fish Heads."

Then, to my surprise, there was no concert - the entertainment for the evening was a fashion show and it finished at midnight.  With exception to some of the late night disturbances, we really enjoyed our time spent in Sardinia.  However, we were pleased to return to the land of quiet hours, Germany.  

NOTE: a beach-going day was left out because we returned to La Pelosa due to our catamaran trip being canceled.  Only one detail worth mentioning - possibly the worst Italian food served in Italy.  Julie ordered lasagna for lunch, presumable homemade or maybe store bought noodles and a house sauce.  Nope.  This is what she got.

Definitely not homemade