I think 19 years old is a young age to travel anywhere, but in 1979, when I first traveled to Sardegna, Italy, I think it was even younger. I wish I could have had a film camera then.

In the Italian film Cinema Paradiso, there is a scene where the main character, Toto, gets off a bus in a small Sicilian town and within seconds he is left alone, the town almost deserted. That was how I felt the day I arrived in Sardegna, almost 35 years ago. I was expecting someone to be there to meet me, but after watching all the passengers grab their bags and waiting for over an hour, I realized, like Toto, I was on my own.

The plane had landed at Elmas Airport in Caglieri. It was a small local airport with regional service to Rome and I suppose a few other Italian towns. Everything seemed foreign. For one I couldn’t just put a quarter in the phone and make a call or even a 100 lira coin. You had to purchase and use what they called a “gettone.” I suppose it allowed them to not update the phones every time they devalued the lira, or when inflation caused the price to go up, which during the years following the Second World War would have been often. With some effort,[ I spoke almost no Italian,] I bought a gettone and finally made it out of the airport.

That same day, I saw a wedding couple in native costumes riding in a wagon pulled by oxen. With that scene Sardegna officially became the “coolest” place I had ever been.

That was the only time I saw a scene like that until I returned to make this film. Even in 1979, native costumes and wagons were mostly a thing of the past. And still, walking the streets there was almost nothing that reminded me of home. The main shopping street in Quartu, was a collection of local businesses; a butcher shop, a barbershop, a sweet shop, and tabacco shop, but they were nothing like those I was familiar with.

Today, students, many younger than nine-teen criss-cross the world with their families, friends, and student groups. Tourism is perhaps the 5th largest industry in the world. Students don’t get culture shock going to Italy.

When I returned to Sardegna in 2002 to make this, my first cultural film, at first glance it seemed Sardegna had changed little. What I learned is that Sardegna had changed along with the rest of the world, I just hadn’t been around to notice. Over the course of several weeks, I tried to preserve what I had remembered as well as see and understand what was new.

When I flew into Elmas I discovered the airport was larger, but still small. In 2003, they opened the new airport and today over 4 million passengers pass through each year. It could have been an airport anywhere in the world. In 2004, I decided to the boat, because it still reminded me of how I felt when I left the island all those years ago.

They no longer use gettone, in fact they don’t even use the Lira. The main street of Quartu is now a modern shopping district with the type of names and brands we would find here, of course many of the names and brands are Italian, which is exactly what we find here.

If anything, change is happening faster. Now this film too, is getting old and perhaps out-dated. It has already been almost 10 years since I filmed it with an old standard definition camera. Maybe it is time to return and make another film on Sardegna, perhaps Bringing Home Sardinia 2.0 or maybe I’ll have to skip a couple of updates and make it 5.0. Or maybe I’ll have to make the film I have always wanted to make a film about Sardinian shepherds. That is if it is not already too late.

Maybe you can join me.

Regardless, this is part 1 of the film I made about Sardinia all those years ago. A place that continues to change and yet some how still remains in many ways the same. A place that will always enchant and intrigue me and is still one of the “coolest” places I’ve ever been. Enjoy

Abbracci,
Steven McCurdy

Additional segments of Bringing Home Sardinia should appear here every couple of days so I hope you will follow me on facebook and I hope you will share it with everyone who loves Sardinia and Italy.

To purchase a copy of Bringing Home Sardinia please email me at steve@storycollectors.com

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