Blog #4: Geomining Park, Temple of Antas, and Cooking Lesson at the Farm

This weekend we visited the geomining park in Iglesias, the Antas Temple in Fluminimaggiore, and we stayed overnight at a farm in Arbus. The entrance to the geomining park is on the coastline, so we got off of the bus about a mile before the entrance and walked the rest of the way. When we got there, we were given hard hats because we were about to travel under a huge mountain in small dark tunnels cut out of the rock. We started walking underneath the mountain, and we almost immediatly had to rely on our senses other than eyesight to walk because the tunnels were so dark. The tour guide had a flashlight and there were some lights in the tunnels, but they were spaced far apart so there were many times inbetween lights where I could not see my feet or my hands if I held them out in front of me. As we were walking, there were little exhibits in the walls of the tunnels that showed the evolution of mining. The first exhibit had stone picks and hammers, the second had drills, and the third had dynamite. Our tour guide also pointed out some red-orange clay on the walls and some stalagmites. Just before we came out of the tunnels on the other side of the mountain, we saw some extremly deep caves underneath the tunnels that the miners used to store the minerals that they found. When we came out of the tunnels we were very close to the Sugarloaf, which is a 133 meter tall rock in the ocean that used to be connected to the island but was seperated due to erosion. After we took some pictures, we turned around and went back through the mountain to the entrance.

The next place we visited was the Temple of Antas in Fluminimaggoiore, which was built by the Romans. The temple was dedicated to the god Babai, who was called Sardus Pater by the Romans. Our guide told us that Babai is still used today in Sardinia when talking to your grandparents or an older person who is respected. The temple has been mostly restored, and some of the designs on the top of the pillars can still be seen.

That night we went to a farm in Arbus that has a variety of animals including horses, sheep, chickens, a turkey, geese, cats, and dogs and grows many fruits and vegetables. Sunday morning we attended a cooking lesson given by the owner of the farm on how to make Malloreddus (which is Sardinia gnocchetti, a pasta) and Seadas, a traditional Sardinia dessert. When we made the pasta we had to roll small pieces of dough until they were very thin and break them off into tiny balls. They were shaped using a tool called the gnocchetti board, which is basically a piece of wood with grooves on it. The small ball of dough was pressed onto the piece of wood with your thumb, and it curled into an oval shaped piece of pasta. For the dessert we used a dough flattening machine to make the dough very thin. We took some Pecorino cheese (milk that they made from their sheep) and lemon zest and wrapped the dough around it, and then it was deep fried and topped with honey. We ate the pasta and the dessert that we made for lunch, and it was very tasty!