San Sperate - Sound Stones, Murals and Mushrooms

On our last full day in Sardinia Emma drove from Villasimius on the Southeast corner to San Sperate, a small town Northwest of Cagliari. It was the home of Pinuccio Sciola, a sculptor and muralist, responsible for the flourishing of murals in the more famous but, in our opinion, less attractive town of Orgosolo near Nuoro in the mountainous north.

San Sperate was perfect for the finale. Wonderful murals, charming houses, a spectacular open-air museum of sound, filled with limestone and basalt stones, many of them uniquely sliced by Sciola to allow them to produce sounds. http://www.psmuseum.it/ And, to top it off, a fabulous mushroom-centered lunch at the eponymous restaurant of Ada, the 85-year-old woman still cooking and attracting diners from Calgiari to San Sperate.

We first saw Sciola's work in this piece on the highway leading in to the somewhat disappointing town of Orgosolo. But Emma thought the village where he lived, San Sperate might be better - and it was.

Laundry

Note how mural of lemon tree runs across door and mailbox and incorporates a real lemon tree.

Only the exposed brick on the left is real.

Painted tile portrait of Sciola on a house belonging to his family.

Sciola Sound Stone Museum. An expression of the idea of music from stone.

Fields full of cut and sliced stone.

Julia the tour guide and grand-niece of Sciola, played some of them. Some using a small piece of stone in her hand others just brushing with her fingers.

The sound sometimes has a xylophone character other times a haunting, wailing sound.

She played the small white "cube."

Emma played too. Unfortunately I did not capture the visible vibration of the ends of the stone on another piece.

Fresh Raw Porcini Salad with Pistachio at ADA restaurant

Porcini dusted with semolina and fried

Small wild mushroom pasta

Sauce of wild red mushrooms on medallion of beef

Ada and her son Andrea.

Afterwards we returned in a half hour to Hertz in Cagliari, passed the scratch inspection and took a taxi to Al Sole, our "home away from home" for the night in readiness for the 8:10 AM flight to Rome the next morning. Oh yes, unrecorded in photos was the visit to the Venchi ice cream parlor where Emma had to settle for strawberry because the mixed berries about which she had been dreaming for weeks had run out. Lesson: Grab the ice cream you want when you see it. Carpe Ice Cream!
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