Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/answers/soc/SCItalian-faq/part6

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From: [e-mail] (Marco Bertamini)
Subject: s.c.italian FAQ (ARTS AND TOURISM) [6/8]
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Followup-To: soc.culture.italian
Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked
         Questions (and their answers) about Italy and
         soc.culture.italian.
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Date: Sat, 16 Apr 1994 04:37:32 GMT
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Archive-name: SCItalian-faq/part6
Version: 1.4

=====S6. ARTS AND TOURISM

==Q6.1= What are the lyrics of that famous song by XXX?

Last modified: February 10 1994

esiste un songbook creato da Augusto Sarti <[e-mail]>
e disponibile per ftp anonimo.

Romano Giannetti <[e-mail]> writes:

   ho tolto la polvere dal nastro di backup (figurato) dove avevo il
SongBook di SCI e l'ho messo a disposizione con ftp anonimo presso
sensores2.fis.ucm.es (147.96.22.127), login anonymous, directory
/pub. ATTENZIONE: questo e' un PC con Linux che io divido con altri
utenti che spesso usano il DOS-Windows... quindi se non riuscite a
fare login puo' essere che non stia girando Linux. Try again later, o
senno' ditemi dove mettere i file.

Nella directory /pub compare:

drwxr-xr-x   2 romano   users        1024 Jan 31 15:50 SongBook/
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          565 Jan 31 15:48 SongBook.README
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       652363 Jan 31 15:51 SongBook.tar.gz

La directory SongBook contiene:

*.tex:         sorgenti della versione LaTeX del SongBook
sb.txt:        versione ascii del SongBook
SongBook.ps    Postscript songbook
SongBookA4.ps  Versione con due colonne per pagina (cosi' sono "solo"
               85 pagine o giu' di li').
sbeven.ps,
sbodd.ps       pagine pari e dispari di SongBook.ps

SongBook.tar.gz e' la stessa directory tarrata e gzippata (viva
l'Italiano!).

==Q6.2= Can I buy books or CDs in Italian by mail?

Last modified: February 14 1994

Steve Bookman <[e-mail]> writes:

  There is a specialist firm in New York City which has an
  extensive inventory of books in the Italian language.
  It is predominantly a mail order business, as well:

   S. F. Vanni
   30 West 12th Street
   New York, NY 10011-8691

   Telephone - 212 675-6336

  A second possible source is the United Nations Book Shop,
  a store which has recently begun advertising its international
  book special-order service on the radio.

  You may telephone them at 212 963-8348.

Powell's Books, while not specializing in either Italian books or Mail
order sales, does have an extremely large selection which includes
many books in Italian and they do ship, even internationally.

Powell's City of Books (main store)
1005 W Burnside, 503-228-4651
Portland, Oregon

One of the wonders of Portland.  Powell's has new and used books by
the millions.  Its depth and coverage exceeds most large-city libraries.

Also, if you are looking for Italian books in English
translations, you can contact Italica Press. You can ask for a
catalog at the following address:
  Italica Press, Inc.
  595 Main St.
  NY, NY 10044-0045
  Phone: [phone].

Marino Duregon <[e-mail]> writes:

  Tempo fa era comparso su s.c.i. un posting di Chaabouni World CDs
  (Westerville, OH) un mail-order business specializzato in
  CD di artisti di tutto il mondo, italia compresa.
  Spedisci una e-mail a [e-mail] richiedendo
  la lista dei CD italiani.
  Quando l'ho richiesta io v'erano almeno cinque titoli di
  Battiato (Come un cammello in una grondaia, Prospettiva
  Newski, Orizzonti perduti, Mondi lontanissimi, Fisiognomica,
  Giubbe Rosse, :-) ho la lista sotto il naso ...) tutti a $18.50
  eccetto l' ultimo che e' un doppio a $38.50 piu', ovviamente,
  shipping and handling.


==Q6.3= Is there any Italian newsletter about arts?

Last modified: January 30 1993

If you are a professional interested in Italian arts there is a free
newsletter. The Treccani Newsletter offers information about history,
expositions books and so on. Even fellowships to go to Italy.

For more information write to:
    Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
    12 E. 46th St.
    NY, NY 10017
Or call: 212/818-0515


==Q6.4= Are there Italian texts available on Internet?

Last modified: June 17 1993

- --
CPET DIGESTS NOW AVAILABLE VIA GOPHER AND FTP

For the past four years, Georgetown University's Center for Text &
Technology (CTT), under the aegis of the Academic Computer Center,
has been compiling a directory of projects that create and analyze
electronic text in the humanities.  A relational database
accessible via the Internet, Georgetown's Catalogue of Projects in
Electronic Text (CPET) includes information on more than 350
projects throughout the world.

Now digests of project information -- organized by humanities
discipline and by language of the electronic text -- can be read,
searched, and retrieved by means of the Internet's protocols for
Gopher and anonymous FTP. There are digests for 40 different
languages, as well as for linguistics, literature, philosophy,
biblical studies, and a variety of others, ranging from Medieval
and Renaissance studies to Archaeology, African studies, and
Buddhism.

Once inside the main Gopher directory, look for CPET files under:
      Other Gopher and Information Servers
      North America
      USA
      Washington, DC
      Georgetown University

On the Georgetown server look into the directory
CPET_PROJECTS_IN_ELECTRONIC_TEXT, where you will find the following
files and subdirectories:

      1. CPET_DIGESTS_INTRODUCTION.TXT  (information on the digests)
      2. CPET_INTRODUCTION.TXT (information on the CPET database)
      3. CPET_USER_GUIDE.TXT (how to access the on-line database)
      4. DIGESTS_DISCIPLINES.DIR (digests organized by discipline)
      5. DIGESTS_LANGUAGES.DIR (digests organized by language)

The digests are arranged in a similar structure in Georgetown's FTP
server.  To survey the digests, first enter the following command
from your system prompt:

      ftp guvax.georgetown.edu  (or ftp 141.161.1.2)

When requested, login with the username ANONYMOUS and a password
according to the formula YOURNAME@YOURSITE.

Once within GUVAX, at the ftp prompt change directories as follows:

      ftp> cd cpet_projects_in_electronic_text

Then if you then enter a directory command -- DIR -- you will find
the same files and subdirectories that are described in the
directions on gopher.

If you have any questions or comments on this service, or would
like to learn more about CPET and Georgetown's Center for Text and
Technology, please contact the address below.

Georgetown Catalogue of Projects in Electronic Text (CPET)
Center for Text & Technology
Academic Computer Center, Reiss 238
Georgetown University, Washington, DC  20057  USA
tel: [phone]        fax: [phone]

Contacts:  Paul Mangiafico, CPET Project Assistant
           [e-mail]
       Dr. Michael Neuman, Director, Center for Text & Technology
           [e-mail]

==Q6.5= Can I use my credit card in Italy?

Last modified: July 26 1993

La situazione 'carte di credito' in Italia e` diversa da quella
statunitense.  Si paga quasi sempre per contanti, con assegni abbastanza
spesso (di solito se si e` conosciuti, se sono importi grossi, ecc.).
Molti esercizi commerciali si stanno attrezzando per usare le carte di
credito, soprttutto grazie all'iniziativa si quasi tutte le banche
italiane, che si cono consorziate, creano una societa`, la Servizi
Interbancari, la quale ha messo in circolazione una carta di credito,
chiamata CartaSI, che e` stata "spinta" moltissimo.

La CartaSI ha fatto degli accordi con MasterCard e VISA, per cui
senza spesa aggiuntiva si puo' avere una CartaSI-Visa o
una CartaSI-Mastercard, e quindi utilizzarla (all'estero) con questi
circuiti. Non e' sicuro invece che un negoziante italiano che non esponga
la vetrofania Visa ma solo quella CartaSi accetti una Visa.

Credo che il 30-40% sia una buona approssimazione (per difetto) della
penetrazione commerciale di questa iniziativa.
Decisamente meno diffusi AmexCO e Diners.

Ci sono rari cash-dispenser utilizzabili con carte di credito.
Quando sono utilizzabili le commissioni tendono ad essere alte.


==Q6.6= Where is the closest US Consulate in Italy?

Last modified: June 15 1993

* Milan
Consolato USA
Via Principe Amedeo 2/10, Milano
tel [phone]


==Q6.7= Should I be afraid of Gypsies in Italy?

Last modified: June 7 1993

No, just avoid rubbing your butt against ANY stranger when
your wallet is sticking out from your rear pocket.


==Q6.8= How many dialects and languages are spoken in Italy?

Last modified: July 6 1993

Several.  Every region has his own dialect with great differences between
the dialects of the same region.  Sometimes it's an evidence of different
dominations, for example the 'Trentino' spoken in Rovereto (that was part
of "Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia" is different from 'Trentino' spoken
in Arco, on the very north of Garda Lake (always part of the Austrian
empire).  Sometimes there's no other reason than 'we always spoke it this
way'.

Among the languages spoken in Italy there is:
* German: in South Tyrol (about 280.000 inhabitants)
  More information:
    Amt fuer deutsche und ladinische Kultur
    Landhaus VII
    Andreas Hofer Strasse 18
    I-39100 Bozen (BZ)
    Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]
* Ladin: The Ladin language evolved over many centuries to become an
  independent Rhaeto-Romance language around 450 A.D.  This Ladin language
  - today scarcely changed - is the mothertongue of 90% of the inhabitants
  of the Dolomitic valleys.  The respective dialects are:
    Gherdeina: Val Gardena (South Tyrol - about 8000 inhabitants)
    Badiot: Val Badia (South Tyrol - about 9000 inhabitants)
    Fascian: Val di Fassa (Trentino)
    Fodom/Ampezan: Livinallongo and Ampezzo (Belluno province)
  The reason, the Ladin language has been preserved, is the geographical
  isolation of these regions in the past, which remained unaffected by the
  great German migrations since the sixth century A.D.  This migration was
  responsible for the semination of the German language throughout the
  South Tyrolean region, with the exception, as mentioned, of the Dolomite
  areas.
  More information:
    "Cesa di Ladins" (Museum)
    Via Rezia 83
    I-39046 Ortisei (BZ)
    Tel: [phone]
* Albanese: spoken in a few communities in Calabria, Puglia, Molise and Sicily
* Grico: in Puglia (it's a greek dialect)
* Slovenian: around Udine and Trieste
* French: in Valle d'Aosta

==Q6.9= Is pizza really coming from Italy?

Last modified: August 8 1993

Ugo Piomelli <[e-mail]> writes:

 A "false cognate" is a word that has the same sound in two languages
 but different meanings. "Pizza" is one of them.

 Flatbreads are as old as baking itself, and one can trace something
 akin to pizza to the ancient Greeks or perhaps the Etruscans. Pizza in
 its present form, however, was common in Naples as far back as the
 mid-1700s. Around 1850 two references to pizza can be found, one by
 Alexandre Dumas, in the "Grand Dictionnaire de la Cuisine", and one in
 "Usi e costumi di Napoli". The pizza they describe can still be bought
 in the streets of Naples today.  Dumas mistakenly thought that the
 "pizza a otto giorni" was baked eight days before eating, whereas in
 reality it is paid eight days after it is eaten (see Marotta's "Oro di
 Napoli").

 The basic pizza, the "Marinara" is made of a circle of bread dough,
 about 6-8 inches in diameter, flattened and covered with tomato sauce,
 sprinkled with oregano, basil, salt, garlic and olive oil, and baked
 for a few minutes in a very hot brick oven with a metal floor. "Pizza
 Margherita" was invented in 1889 to honor Queen Margherita who was
 visiting Naples.  Don Raffaele Esposito, one of the premier pizzaioli
 of the time, used tomato sauce, fiordilatte (not mozzarella, which is
 made with buffalo milk and is too flimsy to withstand baking) and
 basil to obtain the colors of the Italian flag.

 Nowadays, numerous variations exist using artichokes, anchovies, ham
 and other ingredients (two or three at a time, however, never the
 horrendous mishmash found on American pizza).  Pizza at its best,
 however, is still based on the careful juxtaposition of subtle,
 contrasting flavors and colors: the sweetness of basil and the burnt
 bitterness of the cornicione (the part that is left sauceless, which
 takes a burnt look and which, in Naples, is significantly wider than
 elsewhere).  The white islands of fiordilatte parting the Red Sea of
 tomatoes.  The green basil leaves standing out on the red background.

 Brought in the States, most likely, by Neapolitan immigrants around
 the turn of the present century, pizza has been modified to suit the
 American taste: quantity has replaced subtlety; meats (sausage,
 salami, ham and so on) have become a nearly irreplaceable ingredient;
 over-sweetened canned tomato sauces have replaced the simple strained
 tomatoes of the original; a thick layer of plastic cheese has replaced
 the fiordilatte islands. The result: a plastic animal that bears to
 the original the same resemblance that Hearst Castle bears to Palazzo
 Pitti.

Ugo Piomelli again:

 Fast-food partenopeo, storicamente la pizza si basa su pochi
 ingredienti ben scelti ed accostati, e sull'abile mano e l'occhio attento del
 pizzaiuolo, che stende la pasta uniformemente, mantiene il forno alla
 temperatura giiusta, ed estrae la pizza al momento supremo.  Il forno
 deve essere a legna, con pavimento di metallo e pareti in muratura.

 Originariamente, gli ingredienti erano pomodoro, basilico, origano e
 olio (pizza marinara). La pizza si mangiava per strada, e spesso si
 comprava a credito (la "pizza a otto giorni" de "L'oro di Napoli").
 Alla fine dell'Ottocento viene introdotta la Margherita, in
 onore della regina, in cui il fiordilatte (di consistenza piu` robusta
 rispetto all'eterea mozzarella di bufala) permette di realizzare il
 tricolore. Al giorno d'oggi esistono varie combinazioni: bianca, con
 prosciutto, quattro stagioni, ed infine la pizzza frattale del
 Collettivo Immaginario. Personalmente, ritorno sempre ai vecchi
 standard: marinara e, raramente, Margherita.  Preferenze personali:
 Pizzeria Trianon ai Tribunali e Bellini a Port'Alba. Entrambe a
 Napoli, naturalmente.

==Q6.10= What is the difference between mozzarella and fiordilatte?

Last modified: August 8 1993

Based on a posting by Ugo Piomelli <[e-mail]>

Real mozzarella is made from buffalo milk. This may sounds
surprising to many people that are convinced that buffalo only live
in North America. The explanation is in the fact that people mix
buffalo and bisons, but they are different beasts.

Webster's dictionary says:

buf-fa-lo \'bef-e-,lo^-\
[It bufalo & Sp bu'falo, fr. LL bufalus, alter. of L bubalus, fr.
     Gk boubalos African gazelle, irreg. fr. bous head of cattle
     -- more at COW]
1: any of several wild oxen: as
1a: WATER BUFFALO
1b: any of a genus (Bison); esp: a large shaggy-maned No. American
     wild ox (B bison) with short horns and heavy forequarters with
     a large muscular hump.

The buffalo needed to make mozzarella are probably close
to what is known as water buffalo in America (Bubalus bubalis),
and yes it lives in Italy too.

Since Bisons were not domesticated at the time, it is
doubtfull that native Americans used to make anything similar
to mozzarella using Bison milk. :-)

Fiordilatte on the other hand is a cheese similar to mozzarella,
but it is made with cow milk. (famous is fiordilatte made in Agerola).

The confusion between mozzarella and fiordilatte is widespread
not just in America, but mostly everywhere outside Naples.
Fiordilatte is often sold as mozzarella. Most Italians living in
the north have probably never tasted the real mozzarella.

Good places where to buy mozzarella (in Naples of course):
* Soave in via Scarlatti (quartiere Vomero). You can buy "bocconcini
di mozzarella coperti di panna".
* Mandara has many shops around town.
* Or you can go to Mondragone where there are many small
"latticini" that sell a good product.


==Q6.11= Where is a good restaurant in Florence?

Last modified: March 14 1994

          Eating Out in Florence

by David Alexander and Rossella Rossi-Alexander

     There are, of course, hundreds of restaurants in Florence: the
Guida rapida of the Touring Club Italiano lists a selection of 48
and the Michelin Guide to Italy mentions 35. But despite these
recommendations, there is still a high risk that the stranger to
Florence will end up in a place that is outrageously expensive and
thoroughly uncharacteristic. The city's great paradox is that the
tourists and the Florentines seem to inhabit separate worlds, but
in the same physical space. Where do local people go out to eat?
Here are some of their favourite locales: to find them, purchase a
good city map from any newspaper stand and see the yellow pages of
the telephone directory if in need of further directions.

     Let's start at the top. If one has just won the lottery and
has about 300,000 lire to spend on a dinner to remember, one would
go to Enoteca Pinchiorri or to Ristorante Sabatini in the heart of
the city. The former offers a superb collection of wines, the
finest international cuisine and a historical setting, and the
latter is strongly dedicated to Florentine cullinary traditions.

     At the other end of the scale some remarkably good cheap
restaurants are concealed at strategic points around the city. For
example, Ristorante Cibreo can be found in a very picturesque
setting at the side of the Mercato di Sant'Ambrogio. The restaurant
itself is very expensive, but at lunchtime one can go around to the
back door and dine in a tiny room next to the kitchen, sharing a
table with the habitus. The inzimino (squid and spinach in a hot
sauce) is excellent: so is the cibreo, an ancient Florentine dish
made with offal. In the vicinity of Santa Croce, half way down Via
di Mezzo, is a modest building with frosted glass windows in which
one can find the Trattoria da Alessi, which offers the very best
Florentine food at the very lowest prices. There is no sign
outside: one has to know where it is or ask a local resident, but
it is well worth discovering. Alessi once ran an up-market
restaurant, but he closed it in order to run a cheap and cheerful
"hole in the wall," full of local character. The food is utterly
Florentine (Alessi has researched the city's archives for good
mediaeval recipes) and utterly genuine. As with the Cibreo, it pays
to arrive at 12.30 or 7.00 p.m. (very early, that is) as both
places fill up with customers as soon as they open.

     The Trattoria Ada (in front of the Campo di Marte railway
station) is one of the best things about Florence. It is run by a
single, but very numerous, family. The minestra di farro (pearl
barley soup from Lucca) is superb, and the prices are reasonable by
Florentine standards. A number of local customers eat there every
day! In more central locations, the Trattoria Tito offers
dependable Florentine food, and the Trattoria da Cesare serves a
very good baccala' (salt cod) on Fridays. The Ristorante Vegetariano
in Via delle Ruote (off Via San Gallo) is excellent for macrobiotic
food: on entering for the first time one acquires an annual
membership card for a nominal sum which is easily recouped on the
low cost of the meal (the daily menu is chalked up on a blackboard
at the entrance and one writes one's own check). Likewise, after
one has payed a tiny fee for membership, the Associazione Miro' at
Via San Gallo 57/59 offers cheap local dishes in very pleasant
informal surrounds.

     And now to the Oltrarno, the other side of the river.
Ristorante Omero, at Arcetri in the hills above Florence, has a
very good reputation and is usually thronged with local people,
though it is not cheap. Beneath the Forte Belvedere, and accessible
by the steps that run down from the southwest side of Piazzale
Michelangelo, is the fairly expensive Ristorante La Beppa, which
has a very good reputation. On the down-market side, the popular
Trattoria Nello in Borgo San Frediano is the best place to soak up
the real Florentine atmosphere of the artisan's quarter. The more
expensive Il Drago Verde in Borgo San Frediano is also highly
recommended.

     Thanks to mass tourism, many of the restaurants in the city
centre are overpriced and disappointing. But some are very good. We
recommend: La Maremmana, Il Pennello, La Casa di Dante,
Del Fagioli, and Il Latini. In the quartiere San Lorenzo, Il Girone
Infernale offers much better food than was served up in Dante's
Inferno. Next door to each other at the Mercato Centrale di San
Lorenzo the trattorie Da Mario and Zaza' are both worth patronizing.
The Acqual'due in Via dell'Acqua is a very good place to relax
until the small hours and to eat stuzzicchini, the characteristic
Florentine snacks.

     Lastly, pizzerie. The ones dedicated to the tourist trade are
awful, but we recommend several others. I Tarocchi in Borgo San
Niccolo' is very good, as is the pizzeria in the beautiful Piazza
Santo Spirito. In Borgo San Lorenzo there are many, including Nuti,
one of the oldest Florentine eateries. Alternatively, one can get
the no. 7 bus from Piazza San Marco to the main piazze at Fiesole,
where there is an excellent pizzeria. Bus tickets, for 1100 lire
per journey or 4000 lire for four trips (un biglietto multiplo
dell'ATAF), can be bought from bars.

     Happy eating!

Trattoria Ada, Viale Mazzini (Stazione Campo di Marte); lunchtimes
only, closed Fridays
Trattoria Alessi, Via di Mezzo (Santa Croce)
Ristorante La Beppa, Via Erta Canina 6 (San Niccolo'); closed
Wednesdays
Trattoria da Cesare, Viale Spartaco Lavagnini
Trattoria Cibreo, Via dei Macci (Mercato S. Ambrogio); weekday
lunchtimes only
Ristorante Omero, Via Pian dei Giullari 11 (Arcetri); closed
Tuesdays and all of August
Enoteca Pinchiorri, Via Ghibellina 87; closed Sundays, Monday
lunchtimes and all of August.
Ristorante Sabatini, Via Panzani 41; closed Mondays
Trattoria da Tito, Via San Gallo


==Q6.12= What is important to know about region XXX?

Last modified: March 14 1994

* Sardinia

from Maurizio Pilu:

The History of Sardinia

This outline, by Francesco Cesare Casula, has been originally issued
by the Tourist Board of The Autonomous Region of Sardinia within the
institute of the National Council for Scientific Research on Italo-Iberian
relations. The original paperback is printed by 2D Editrice Mediterranea,
Sassari (Italy).

Prehistory

Sardinia is one of the most ancient lands in europe, visited way back in the
Paleolithic period though inabithed permanently by man only much later, in
the Neolithic age, around 6000 B.C.

The first man to settle in Gallura and Northern Sardinia probably came from
Italian mainland and, in particular, from Etruria. Those who populated the
central region of the island arrived, it seems, from the Iberian Peninsula
by way of the Balearic Islands. Those who founded their settlements around
the gulf of Cagliari were in all likelihood Africans. Hence, it can be said
that in Sardinia there never was one single people but really several peoples.

As time passed, the Sardinian peoples became united in language and customs
yet remained divided politically into various smaller tribal states.
Sometime they were banded together, while at others they were at war
with one other.

Tribes lived in villages made up round thatched stone huts, similar to the
present day pinnette of shepherds.

Prehistoric arrowheads (III millennium B.C.) and sculpture of the the
Mediterranean Mother Goddess may be found in the Archeological Museum of
Cagliari. In the Archeological Museum of Sassari are some ceramics from
the Copper or Aneolithic Age (2600 B.C.).

From about 1500 B.C. onwards the villages were built at the foot of a mighty
truncated cone fortress (often reinforced and enlarged with embattled towers)
called nuraghe. A nuragic village may be found in Barumini (Cagliari).

The boundaries of tribal territories were guarded by smaller lookout nuraghi
erected on strategic hills commanding a view of the enemy. Today some
7000 nuraghi dot the sardinian landscape.

Ancient History

Around 1000 B.C. the Phoenicians began to land with their ships on the shores
of Sardinia with increasing frequency. Setting sail from Lebanon, on
their trade routes as far afield as Britain they needed safe anchorages
for the night or to weather a storm.

With the local chieftains' consent the more common ports of call were those
later named as : Caralis, Nora, Bithia, Sulcis, Tharros, Bosa, Torres
and Olbia. They soon became important markets and after a time real towns
inhabited by Phoenicians families who traded on the open sea and with the
Nuragic Sardinians inland.

A bronze statuette of a Nuragic chieftain and some Phoenicians handicraft are
in the Archeological Museum of Cagliari.

In 509 B.C., in view of the Phoenician expansion inland becoming ever more
menacing and penetrating, the native Sardinians attacked the coastal cities
held by the enemy who, in order to defend themselves, called upon Carthage
for help. The Carthaginians, after a number of military campaigns, overcame
the Sardinians and conquered the whole island apart from the most
mountainous region, later referred to as Barbaria or Barbagia.

For 271 years, the splendid Carthaginian or Punic civilization flourished
alongside the fascinating local nuragic culture. A Nuragic massive head of
warrior and a Carthaginian goddess are in the Archeological Museum of
Cagliari.

In 238 B.C the Carthaginians, defeated by the Romans in the first Punic War,
surrendered Sardinia which became a province of Rome.

The Romans enlarged and embellished the coastal cities and with their armies
even penetrated the Barbagia region, thereby bringing down the Nuragic
civilization.

Medieval history

In 456 A.D., when the Roman Empire was sinking fast, the Vandals of Africa, on
their return from a raid in Latium on the mainland, occupied Caralis along
with the other coastal cities of Sardinia. In 534 the Vandals were defeated at
Tricamari, a place some 30 Km form Carthage, by the troops of the Eastern
Emperor Justinian and Sardinia thus became Byzantine. The island was
divided into districts called mereie, governed by a judex residing in Caralis
(Cagliari) and garrisoned by an army stationed in Forum Traiani (nowadays
Fordongianus) under the command of a dux.

Along with the Byzantines and the Eastern monasticism of the followers of St.
Basil, Christianity spread throughout the island, except in the Barbagia
regions. Here, towards the end of the sixth century, a short-lived
independent domain reestablished itself, with Sardinian-heathen lay
and religious traditions, one of its kings being Ospitone.

From 640 to 732 the Arabs occupied North Africa, Spain and part of France. In
827 they began their occupation of Sicily. Sardinia remained isolated and was
forced to defend herself; thus, the judex provinciae assumed overall command
with civil and military powers.

The continual raids and attacks by the Islamized Berbers on the Sardinian
shores began in 710 and grew ever more ruinous with time. One by one the
coastal towns and cities were abandoned by their inhabitants. The judex
provinciae, in order to afford a better defence of the island, assigned
his civil and military powers to his four lieutenants in the mereie of
Cagliari, Torres or Logudoro, Arborea and Gallura.
Around 900, the lieutenants gained their independence, in turn becoming
judices (in Sardinian judikes means king) of their own logu or state.

Each one of these four Sardinian states called giudicati constituted a
sovereign kingdom, not patrimonial but independent since it was not the
property of the monarch.
But they were at the same time democratic since all the most important
issues of national interest were not for the king (or giudice) himself to
decide but were a matter for the representative of the people gathered in
assembly called corona de logu.

Each kingdom manned its own fortified boundaries to protect its own political
and trading affairs, its own parliament, own laws (cartas de logu), own
national languages, own chancelleries, own state emblems and symbols, etc.
The kingdom or giudicato of Cagliari was politically pro-Genoese. It was
brought to an end in 1258 when its capital, S. Igia, was stormed and
destroyed by an alliance of Sardinian-Pisan forces. The territory then became
a colony of Pisa. The kingdom or giudicato of
Torres, too, was pro-Genoese and came to an end in 1259, on the death of the
giudicessa Adelasia. The territory was divided up between the Doria family of
Genoa and the Bas-Serra family of Arborea, while the city of Sassari became an
autonomous city-republic.

The kingdom or giudicato of Gallura ended in the year 1288, when the last
giudice Nino Visconti a friend of Dante's, was driven out by the Pisans
who occupied the territory. The kingdom or giudicato of Arborea was almost
always under the political and cultural influence of the powerful marine
republic of Pisa. It lasted some 520 years, with Oristano as its capital.

In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII in order to settle diplomatically the War of the
Vespers, which broke out in 1282 between the Angevins and Aragonese over the
possession of Sicily, established motu proprio a hypothetical regnum Sardiniae
et Corsicae. The Pope offered it to the Catalan Jaume II the Just,
king of the Crown of Aragon (a confederation made up of the kingdoms of
Aragon and Valencia, plus the peasants of Catalonia), promising him support
should he wish to conquer Pisan Sardinia in exchange for Sicily. In 1323
Jaume II of Aragon formed an alliance with the kings of Arborea and,
following a military campaign which lasted a year or so, occupied the
Pisa territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the city of Sassari,
naming them kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica.

In 1353, for reasons of state survival, war broke out between the kingdom of
Arborea and the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica part of the Crown of Aragon.
In 1354 the Aragonese seized Alghero and reshaped it into an entirely Catalan
city, which still today displays its Iberian origins. In 1353 Pere IV of
Aragon, called the Cerimonious, granted legislative autonomy (a parliament)
to the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica which was followed in due course
by self-government (Viceroy) and judicial independence (Royal Hearing).

From 1365 to 1409 the kings or giudici of Arborea Mariano IV, Ugone III,
Mariano V (assisted by his mother Eleonora, the famous giudicessa regent) and
Guglielmo III (French grandson of Eleonora) succeeded in occupying very
nearly all Sardinia except Castel of Cagliari (today Cagliari) and Alghero.
In 1409 Marti the Younger, king of Sicily ad heir to Aragon, defeated the
giudicale Sardinians at Sanluri and conquered once and for all the entire
land. Shortly afterwards he died in Cagliari of malaria,
without issue, and consequently the Crown of Aragon passed into the hands of
the Castilians Trastamara, and in particular Ferran I of Antequera and his
descendants, with the Compromise of Caspe in 1412.

The tomb of Marti the Younger is in Cagliari Cathedral.

Modern history

In 1479, as a result of the personal union of Ferran II of Aragon and Isabel
of Castile (the so-called Catholic king and queen), married ten years earlier,
was born the Crown of Spain. Even the kingdom of Sardinia (which in the new
title was separated from Corsica since that island never was conquered)
became Spanish, with the state symbol that of the Four Moors. Following
the failure of the military ventures against the Musulmen of Tunis (1535)
and Algiers (1541) Carlos V of Spain, in order to defend his Mediterranean
territories from the pirate raids by the African Berbers,
fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers. The
kingdom of Sardinia remained Iberian for approximately four hundred years,
from 1323 to 1720, assimilating a number of the Spanish traditions, customs,
linguistic expressions and lifestyles, nowadays vividly portrayed in the
folklore parades of S.Efisio in Cagliari (May lst), by the Cavalcade in
Sassari (last but one Sunday in May) and by the Redeemer in Nuoro
(August 28th).

In 1708 as a conseguence of the Spanish War of Succession, the rule of the
Kingdom of Sardinia passed into the hands of the Austrians who landed on
the island.

In 1717 cardinal Alberoni, minister of Felipe V of Spain, reoccupied Sardinia.
In 1718 with the traty of London, the kingdom of Sardinia was handed over to
the Dukes of Savoy, prices of Piedmont, who rendered it perfect from imperfect
attributing it the summa potestas that is the authority to stipulate
international treaties. The kingdom was then italianized.

In 1799, as a consequence of the Napoleonic wars in Italy, the dukes of Savoy
left Turin and took refuge in Cagliari for some fifteen years. The tomb of
Carlo Emanuele of Savoy is in the cript of Cagliari Cathedral.

In 1847 the sardinian spontaneously renounced their state autonomy and formed
a fusion with Piedmont in order to have a single parliament. a single
magistracy and a single government in Turin. The throne of the kingdom of
Sardinia is in the Royal Palace in Turin.

In 1848 the Wars of indipendence broke out for the Unification of Italy and
were led by the kings of Sardinia for thirteen years.

In 1861 the kingdom of Sardinia was transformed into the Italian state
founded.

Contemporary age

In 1946 by popular referendum Italy became a Republic. Sardinia, administered
since 1948 by special statute, is today on of the twenty Italian regions, with
1,628,690 inhabitants spread out over the provinces of Cagliari, Sassari,
Oristano and Nuoro, retracing more or less the territories of the four ancient
and glourios giudicali states.