A Sample of Cagliari Street Art

Two variations of a mosaic collage of 76 street art photos taken in Cagliari, Sardinia.


Street art along Via S. Saturnino, Cagliari.


We recently spent a week based in Cagliari, the regional capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Located at the south end of the island, Cagliari has a population of about 150,000 and the Cagliaria metropolitan area is about 430,000.

The photos here were snapped as we explored on foot, mostly the Castello, Villanova, Marina, Stampace, San Benedetto, and Bonaria neighborhoods, i.e., the historical center of Cagliari. We estimate we walked about 15 - 20 miles around the city over the course of the week so we had a pretty good sense of the city. (We did spend half our time outside the city too exploring beaches, archaeological sites, and hiking.)

A couple of observations about the street art in Cagliari are in order. First, there was less “street art” and more “graffiti” (tags and random scribbling) then we expected. What street art there was, it wasn’t of a quality I would say knocks your socks off considering what we've seen in other cities (see the Travelmarx Pinterest board.) We say that knowing that we saw only a small fraction of what was there. Also, there is a rich history of murals in Sardinia, but we are not talking about that here. Finally, the street art we saw was predominantly positive in nature and usually dealing with faces or figures.

Criticism aside, we really liked the work of ManuInvisible.com whose work was present in both Cagliari and outside Cagliari, typically underpasses on highways. His work has a sense of style that rises above the rest. It would be worth searching out just his pieces if you are in the area. Also interesting is the work of CRISA (Federico Carta) and the pieces signed s.i.i. felice with their ghost-clown faces, which are strangely affective. All three of these artists are shown in the photos below.

Finally, in Cagliari, Via S. Saturnino, which runs east and parallel of Viale Regina Elina, seems to be a spot to catch a good sampling of street art. Other that that, head out on foot and start exploring!

Pieces used in the photo mosaics

ManuInvisibile pieces around Cagliari. Left: Anziano con berritta (2010). Right: Pagliaccio Donna (2010).




CRISA and similar: fish, hearts, boat, plants.






Fleeting images, barely there.



Horizontal images, possibly all s.i.i. felice.


Faces and figures.


















Wall images across from the Chiesa di San Giacomo, Cagliari Sardinia.


s.i.i. felice in Cagliari: round-eyed clowns.






Random.









Wall stencils in Cagliari Sardinia.

The Cagliari Palm Tree Graffiti Mystery

Left: A gardener in Parco Bonaria explains how the red palm beetle works, drilling into the heart of the palm. Center: Lots of treatment marks on this palm. Right: The beetle behind the palm deaths: Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. 


While in Cagliari, kept seeing circular paint marks on palm tree trunks and we would mutter to ourselves something like: “those damn graffitists, marking up a tree, really!?”. The mystery didn’t reveal itself until our 6^th day when we stopped to talk to a gardener in the Parco di Bonaria.

What first caught our attention were orange buckets hanging in trees. It was just too tempting and when we saw a gardener sitting there, we decided it was time for an explanation and a language lesson. (We find that people – be it a docent in a museum or a gardener in a park – just love to talk and it’s a great way to practice Italian.) Well, this gardener helped crack the mystery so much so that our visit to the nearby santuario was a bit of letdown. (In this instances, facts trump faith.)

The marks on the trees, concentric circles of yellow, red, blue, and green are a way to keep track of which trees have been treated for the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. Each circle represents an intervention, or use of insecticide. The infestation of this beetle from Asian has been devastating to palm trees around the Mediterranean. It mostly targets the Phoenix canariensis pictured here, although it’s not just limited to this host. I remember first becoming aware of the seriousness of the infestation when we were in Seville, Spain two years ago (see A tour of Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Granada) and we saw many palm stumps, trees with no tops. The beetle kills the tree because the larvae burrow into the heart of the palm weakening and eventually killing the host by eating its heart out.

Cagliari seems to have a marking system with lots of variation. We saw big and small circles. Even the gardener lamented the fact that everyone does it differently. You would think they would have adopted a system a little more aesthetically pleasing to look at like smaller, uniform circles or metal tags that can be punched. Why didn't they ask us first?

Oh, the bucket hanging from the tree, that was filled with pheromones and soapy water. The beetles are attracted to the sex-in-the-bucket and get covered with soapy water, which cuts off how they breathe, and they die.

Treated and dead palms (note stumps) in the Gardini Publici in front of the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Cagliari.


Left: Parco Bonaria marked palm. Center: An orange bucket filled with pheromones. Right: A palm in Parco Bonaria already sick, note yellowing fronds.

Binomen Art – Posidonia oceanica

Left: Posidonia oceanica (binomial nomenclature) spelled out with "fruits" (egagropoli) and old leaves. Right: Fuzzy, fibrous fruits of P. oceanica.


We just couldn’t let this opportunity for a Binomen Art piece pass when recently walking along a beach in Sardinia. We were on the Spiaggia di Notteri, south of Villasimius where we saw lots of  brown fibrous balls. These lightweight, buoyant balls ranged in size from an inch to a couple of inches in diameter. We saw the balls on the beach near Pula as well.

We learned that the balls, nicknamed “Neptune Balls”, are from the seagrass Posidonia oceanica. The seaweed is commonly called Neptune Grass or Mediterranean tapeweed. The latter refers to the tape-like (think cassette tape) foliage. The fuzzy balls we saw on the beach are bits of this aquatic plant formed into balls through the action of waves (hence quotes around the word fruit above). In Italian, common names include “olive of the sea” (oliva del mare), “sea balls” (palle di mare), “sea meatballs” (polpette di mare). The scientific term used to refer to these spheres from the sea is egagropilo/egagropili.

The genus name Posidonia is after Poseidon, the Greek god of the seas. The species name oceanica appears to refer to the wide distribution of this plant that is now only found in the Mediterranean Sea. P. oceanica can form large underwater meadows and is being used as a bioindicator. Furthermore, there is interesting work being done to turn these beach-tribbles into useful insulation.

What we are seeing on the beach today is the result of seagrass flowering between August and November. I would guess in summer much of P. oceanica is cleared from the beach to make way for the summer invasion. According to this article, despite the number of fruits found on the beach, new seagrass “…originating from seedlings are rarely found and P. oceanica primarily propagates vegetatively by elongating the rhizomes; a whole meadow may be one single clone resulting from one ancient seedling.”

Left: Posidonia spelled with brown "sea olives". Right: P. oceanica on Spiaggia di Notteri.


Left: Spiaggia di Notteri (south of Villasimius, Sardinia) with P. oceanica, washed up on shore. Right: Assembling the binomen art piece on the beach.


Left: A Neptune ball in hand is worth two in the bush? Right: Debris from Mediterranean seagrass. The debris can help reduce the erosion of the beach.


Left: Posidonia oceanica and Capo Carbonara in the background. Right: Walkway over Stagno di Notteri.

Hike: Il sentiero Miniere nel blu

Left: Path for the hike Il sentiero miniere nel blu. Right: View from the trail looking north along the Sardinia coast.


Length: ~10 km (6.2 miles)
Duration: ~5 hours walking time, includes exploring and eating lunch at the Canal Grande di Nebida
Elevation: total gain 935 m (3,070 ft), starting/ending 42 m (140 ft), max elevation 327 m (1,070 ft)
Location: Italy, Sardinia, Carbonia-Iglesias, Porto Flavia

For our first hike of the year, we found ourselves on the west coast of Sardinia hiking part of Il sentiero miniere nel blu. First, let’s tackle the trail name. This area is known for its mines (miniere in Italian) and in fact the trail goes past and over former mining sites. The word miniera (plural miniere), also means a treasure trove or wealth, which I’m guessing is used as a play on words here in that the trail takes hikers through a wealth of beautiful scenery. Sentiero means trail. And blu means blue, referring to the ocean and sky.

We parked just outside of Masua, in the parking for Porto Flavio. (We didn’t actually visit the Porto Flavio mine.) We did a loop hike, counter-clockwise. We took the inland trail north to the Canal Grande di Nebida and then took the coast trail (Il sentiero miniere nel blu) back south to the car. Specifically, from Porto Flavio parking we followed something called Bega sa canna until we hit trail 309 and then took trail 307 back south. Trail 307 is il sentiero miniere nel blu. We saved the coast trail for later in the afternoon to take advantage of the better light from the side, instead of overhead.

We got a late start having stayed up late for New Year’s Eve, and then there was an hour and a half drive from Cagliari to the trailhead. Therefore, we didn’t start hiking until noon. We didn't have much daylight so didn’t continue on to Cala Domestica, a few kilometers north of Canal Grande, which would have been an easy destination.

Flora and fungi

The ecosystem of the hike is maquis shrubland or in Italian: macchia mediterranea. We saw Arbutus unedo [Ericaceae], Cistus spp. [Cistaceae], Euphorbia dendroides [Euphorbiaceae], Juniperus spp., Pistacia lentiscus [Anacardiaceae], and Rosmarinus officinalis [Lamiaceae] to name just a few. Other plants that caught our eye:

• Arisarum vulgare [Araceae] – These were quite prolific along trail 307, and in bloom.
• Arum pictum [Araceae] – Unfortunately, we saw just leaves.
• Geastrum fimbriatum [Geastraceae] – A peculiar star-shaped fungus we spotted.
• Asphodelus spp. [Liliaceae] – At least that's what all these leaves look at. Now blooms to verify.

Some plant resources that were useful to us when researching plants we saw on this hike:

• www.atlantides.it/piante-caratteristiche-della-sardegna - This is a good starting point because it includes finding plants by image.
• luirig.altervista.org - This is a good reference if you know the family and genus name already.
• www.sardegnanatura.com/flora-sardegna.html - A good reference for different vegetation zones and the plants found in each zone, as well as different lists of plants found in Sardinia.
• www.sardegnaambiente.it/foreste/flora_fauna/flora/ and www.sardegnaflora.it - Both contain good list of plants, but you need to know what you are looking for to see plant information and photos.

Canal Grande

As noted above, we took the inner route to arrive at Canal Grande and as we walked we were wondering if we’d get to see anything special. But when we arrived at the Canal Grande beach we were not disappointed, not to mention the walk back along the coast.

To clarify – because we wondered – canale means “valley” in the Campidanese Sardinian language. You walk down a long valley to approach the water. When you reach the water, there is water access, but not a beach. The most striking aspect of the area are the rock layers, which are arranged almost vertically. Then, there is the natural sea cave called La Grotta del Canal Grande. Inside and under the right light, you will see the intense blue of the water and the purple of algae and sea urchins clinging to rocks, tantalizingly out of reach. Nearby the opening of the sea cave, we found a pile of sea urchin shells, ones that were in reach and now in someone’s belly, or at least their gonads were.

According to the Sardegna Natura site, sphalerite was once mined in this area.

Left: Arisarum vulgare. Center: Arum pictum. Right: Rosmarinus officinalis.


Left: Cistus spp. Right: Pistacia lentiscus.


Left: Signs for trails 307 and 309. Right: Information sign at Canal Grande di Nebida.


Left: Sea cave at Canal Grande with blue and purple colors. Right: Sea urchin shells.


"Beach" at Canal Grande di Nebida.


Views along the Sentiero miniere nel blu. Right: Note numerous lily (asphodelus) plants, if that is what they are indeed.


Start of hike near Porto Flavio.


Left: Sign explaining trail 309. Right: Crab at Canal Grande.

Photos from our better camera.

The photos above were all taken with cell phones (except the crab photo). The following photos were taken with a Canon 7D and you can see the difference.

Left: Bee on Rosmarinus officinalis. Right: Arbutus unedo fruit.


Left: Arisarum vulgare. Right: Geastrum fimbriatum.


Left: View north along the Sardinia west coast near Nebida. Right: View down on the sea cave at Canal Grande.


Left: View south along the Sardinia west coast toward Nebida. Right: View of Pan di Zucchero Masua.


Left: Pancratium illyricum leaves. Right: View of maquis shrubland.


Left: Sea cave at Canal Grande. Right: Shallow water at Canal Grande.