CAGLIARI, SARDINIA ~ Italy

I mentioned in an earlier post about waking up every morning and running to the balcony to see what our next port looked like.  Can you blame me?  I loved watching the sunrise as we pulled into each port and with camera in hand, taking pictures of the most beautiful sunrises.

To be honest, I’m not  a morning person.   A sunrise is that thing that happens while I’m still asleep or while I’m up getting ready for work in the mornings.  Waking up in a different country every morning will change you.  I didn’t want to miss one second of this vacation by sleeping.  I wanted to absorb every sunrise and sunset and revel in its beauty.

In case you don't know where Sardinia is (I didn't before I went to Europe), it's off the coast of Italy.  Sardinia is Italy's second largest island and the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It's also a geographical and political region of Italy.  

                Cagliari was beautiful and like other places we visited, filled with old world charm.  

                                            Another door to add to my “door collection”

                                                              Another pastry shop

                                   Of course we had to go in and purchase something.

After purchasing our pastries and drinks, we walked across the road and set on the steps of this beautiful church, the Church of St. Anne or  Chiesa di Sant’Anna.

To give you a little history behind the church, the foundation stone of the parish church of St Anne, based on architect Giuseppe Viana’s initial project, was laid in 1785, but the building wasn’t inaugurated until 1818 and then finished in the 1930s. It was severely damaged during WWII and didn’t re-open until 1951. The structure of the church is a typical example of Baroque architecture, although the style’s characteristic decorations weren’t restored after the latest reparation works. Its twin steeples are a benchmark in Stampace‘s skyline and the church is an important religious and social point of reference for Cagliari’s old town.

I had to try this Lemon Fanta since it’s not something I can get where I live.  I guess I should have waiting to try it when not eating something sweet…

….because this is the face I made when I tried it.  Notice that half of my pasty is missing which means I had eaten a lot of sugar before trying the lemon drink.  Let’s just say it was a little sour.

                                                     My wiser daughter chose Coca Cola.

                         I forgot to take pictures before I dug into these delicious morsels of heaven.  

Here are some of the buildings that surrounded the church.  I loved seeing all of the flowers since it was the first of  March and we don’t have beautiful window boxes blooming this time of year.

Like many of the cities we visited, the were narrow , winding streets with laundry hanging from the windows.

Did you notice the guy standing in the window wearing the blue and white stripe shirt?  I noticed him when I came home and started going through my photographs.