The city of Olbia has existed since Ancient Greek times and passed through the hands of Romans, Byzantines, Pisan merchant princes and every other competing faction that ever fought for control of the Mediterranean. In the medieval period, then called Cività , Olbia was the capital of one of the four giudicati or independent nation-states of Sardinia, which were eventually incorporated by the Savoys of Piedmont into the Kingdom of Sardinia - which was, oddly, the direct predecessor state to the unified Kingdom of Italy.
Nowadays, the most well-known site in the region is the Costa Smeralda, or "emerald coast," a twenty-kilometer stretch of beach beloved by the rich and famous, notorious as the most expensive location in all of Europe. In stark contrast to the rural poverty of much of the island, on the Costa Smeralda real estate prices top out at three hundred thousand euros per square meter - ten times worse than New York, San Francisco, Milan, and anywhere else I might want to live.
This stage of the Giro is a mountainous one, though, so the route leaves Olbia and curves west towards the inland.
The route passes near Bitti, a tiny town known in musical circles for the traditional polyphonic folk singing style called cantu a tenore. Recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, the songs are performed by groups of four men (some evidence suggests that women's groups also sang tenore in the past) each singing one line of the four-part harmony. The three lower voices sing simple drone-like harmonies on nonsense syllables while the soloist sings a secular poetic text, sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes satirical or rude. The two lower voices use a technique known as overtone singing or throat-singing, best known from its use in shamanic and pastoral songs in Mongolia and Central Asia. In the Sardinian tradition, it's often said that the bass voice (su bassu) imitates the mooing of cattle and the baritone (sa contra) the bleating of sheep, while the melodic solo voice (sa boche) represents humankind and its dominion over nature.
A short ways away from Bitti is the town of Nuoro, which became somewhat famous in recent years after a sudden surge of interest from food bloggers and travel writers in the unique, ancient and extremely difficult to make local pasta called su filindeu ("threads of God.) According to common wisdom, the proper recipe and technique are known by only three women in the entire town, and Nuoro is the only place in the world where su filindeu is made.
Pasta conglomerate Barilla has tried and failed to invent a machine to replicate the process and mass-produce su filindeu. British TV chef Jamie Oliver went to Sardinia and attempted to learn the handmade technique from one of the three women who make the town's supply, and made a bit of a fool of himself. So far, no one has cracked the code.
In theory, it's a simple process. The dough is made of semolina flour, water and salt. It's rolled into a log, then stretched long, then folded back on itself in two ropes. Then those ropes are stretched and folded, to make four, and so on. The traditional style requires pulling and folding enough times to create 256 infinitesimally thin threads. These threads are then arranged in a delicate cross-hatch pattern on a wicker frame and left to dry in the sun. The resulting dried lace of pasta is then broken into rough chunks and cooked in a mutton broth with pecorino cheese, in a dish served only twice a year at the May and October feast days of St. Francis.
Next stop Cagliari, then on to Sicily - assuming I can keep up with these posts and not spend the entire rest of the week trying to make su filindeu.
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