From Campidano to Trexenta
on board the train, from Cagliari to Mandas
The train is about to leave!
The journey starts from the San Gottardo station in Monserrato (Cagliari), where you travel comfortably on the brand new Stadler trains. through the territories of the lower Campidano to Mandas, on a journey to rediscover Sardinia, in the footsteps of David Herbert Lawrence described in his book “Sea and Sardinia” (1921), going through the towns of Settimo S. Pietro, Soleminis, Dolianova, Donori, Barrali, Senorbì, Suelli and Gesico, a journey through time that leads us to Mandas. Here, we will find ourselves in front of a railway station that is undoubtedly small and not very busy in today's eyes, but at the time it was one of the largest and by some, considered a majestic testimony of the technological progress achieved, the center of a large movement of people and of novelty. Through the old locomotives, the rusty carriages, the monumental locomotives, we will discover its key importance at the time. Moving away on foot from the station, along the narrow streets of the historic cobbled centre, we will reach the “Is Lollas de Is Aiaius” Ethnographic Museum, very rich of objects and curiosities, a unique experience.
"Footprints" of women and men, left as testimony and memory of their experience. A few steps later, we will arrive at the "MAHMU" Archaeological Museum which houses important Nuragic, Phoenician and Roman finds, fragments of history, from which to better understand who they became , today, our ancestors. By lunchtime we will be in the nearby farmhouse. where, comfortably seated and served, we will taste the succulent 0 km dishes and relax in a peaceful moment of conviviality. After the coffee, we will watch the show cooking carried out by a very skilled local Mandas housewife and we will also be able to try ourselves these techniques or simply admire her mastery and steal some skills to replicate at home.
In the late afternoon, a few minutes' walk and we will arrive in front of the nineteenth-century district of San Francesco, with the convent founded by the friars in 1610. The church of the same name today houses the library and the one dedicated to San Cristoforo collects the treasures of the area in the Museum of Sacred Art “Peregrinatio Fidei”. Spectacular jewels and statues will make us question iconographic symbolism, between the sacred and the profane. A few steps away and the imposing parish church of San Giacomo (Santu Jacu) reconnects the present with the last 200 years of religious life in these places. We start again, by completing the circular route in the historic center, up to the railway station. and….. all back in the carriage!!! The return in total relaxation, on the comfortable Stadler train, along those same tracks laid over 150 years ago. which will take us back to Monserrato (San Gottardo Station), with many images and many memories, and new things to tell and why not a few more new friends.
