hidden europe 32

Sea and Sardinia

by hidden europe

Summary

'There's nothing to see in Nuoro,' wrote DH Lawrence when he and his wife Frieda visited Sardinia in January 1921. 'Happy is the town that has nothing to show,' opined the English writer. We follow the Lawrences on their winter journey by sea to Sardinia.

It was ninety years ago this winter (in January 1921) that DH Lawrence and his wife Frieda resolved to cast off the post-Christmas blues by making a journey. They were away no more than a few days, but that was time enough to inspire Sea and Sardinia, one of Lawrence’s four books of travel writing. At the time, the couple were living on the east coast of Sicily, and they prepared for their journey by making bacon sandwiches and a thermos of tea. How little the dietary habits of the English have changed over the decades since. The Lawrences’ journey led them by train along the north coast of Sicily to Palermo and onward by ship to Cagliari. They continued across Sardinia by train and bus.

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