This has been an amazing week here at TBA and I would like to share some photos I discovered researching my upcoming Photo-Travel Book. These are shots that make me smile as the memories attached are endearing. Please enjoy friends of Bliss and know that Italy has memories waiting for you to discover as well.
Sardinia - Beautiful Place, Beautiful People, Blissful Adventure
Yesterday while creating my post for my amazing friend, chef, and author Viktorija Todorovska and her Sardinia Project, I realized I had never edited my Sardinia photos from 2010.
Part of me I know could not do this because it was the last vacation I took with my co-owner and dear friend Antonello Losito before I decided to leave the company. It was frankly too difficult to see the joy on everyone's faces knowing that a trip like this might not happen again.
I have now finally moved through my grieving period at leaving this amazing company and I was simply blown away when I went through my photos yesterday and saw what I had captured during this huge transition in my life.
Sardinia or Sardegna in Italian, is perhaps the most ruggedly beautiful place I have experienced in my years of travel. It is a basically a series of mountains that drop directly to the sea. The people are hearty, country, and full of vigor as well as political discord. This is an isolated place with a culture that is quite different from Rome, or Venice, or even Tuscany. This is country and mountain living that has only in the last 50 years migrated to the sea.
In only 10 days we went from an amazing family visit with the Giordano clan in Sassari to the sea in Alghero, to the mountains and the politically fractured creative town of Orgosolo. Then we drove all the way back to the sea at Orosei (a whopping 1 hour) before crossing even more mountains to Arbatax and finally to Cagliari where we boarded a ghost ferry back to Rome.
This trip changed me and helped me to understand that I needed more travel and more experience. While I excelled at getting people to Puglia for the company, my own sense of adventure languished while others were catching me, passing me, and living a life I wanted. Sardinia taught me to keep going and at my own direction in my own time.
My photos of the most beautiful children living an amazing life are enormous indicators to me that I have much to do before I could have a family of my own. I will not be qualified for the job of Dad till I feel like I have enough life lived and knowledge to teach my kids the things I want them to know; and while many of you would argue that as people we are never ready, I am not really interested in rhetoric. This is about my own spiritual journey and adventure in living. Today is about Sardinia.
No place better than food to tell you that on this island they do it right. From local cooks, to shepherd meals outdoors on a mountain, all the way to the best agriturismo meal I have ever had. Sardinia is heaven if you like to eat and even more amazing when you have the scenery attached to the meals.
This was truly a Blissful Adventure for me and Juliet. I am certain that the 5 days in Germany and 10 in Sardinia subsequently were the best 15 days Juliet has enjoyed in Europe. We go back this year with a new plan that looks much like my first plan to Italy 20 years ago this year. Eyes wide open, judgments blurred by wine, and experiences left to fate, the weather, and the whimsical nature of man. Follow me on this path.
There will be much more about Sardinia in my book on Italy wanderings next year. For now, please enjoy these photos and feel free to view the entire album on FLICKR.
IMO Thursday - Sardinia - A Project Worth Supporting
Ladies and Gentleman I want to introduce you to a very dear friend and someone I should have introduced long ago. My talented friend is Viktorija Todorovska.
Viktorija is an Italian Food and Wine Professional, and author of the wildly successful cooking adventure, The Puglian Cookbook. Since the launch of the book in May of last year I believe that Viktorija has truly put the amazing cuisine of Puglia in the map. I met Viktorija while we were both in Puglia a few years ago and we became fast friends. She is intelligent, wonderfully well-traveled, and exceptional with languages and cultural nuances. I envy so many of her skills and when I read The Puglian Cookbook I knew she was going to be a star.
Now, Viktorija, who originally hails from Macedonia and currently calls Chicago home is off to Sardinia to develop a food and wine project to raise awareness of the glorious culture of Italy's second largest island. Sardegna is home to the highest percentage of human beings living beyond the age of 100 in the world and Viktorija intends to show the world why.
I had the great privilege of discussing my passion for Sardinia with Viktorija before her last trip there and I am so happy to say that many of the things I love about the island will indeed be part of her Sardinia Project (click the link for details).
I would encourage you all to watch this very short video produced by Viktorija and her very talented photographer husband to hear their plans for this project directly from Viktorija. If you have ever wanted to be directly involved with the production of a potentially award-winning travel video and accompanying guide this is your opportunity. Part of what we do as travel writers and professionals is to bring the joy of a place home to our readers and followers. Please take just a moment to see some wonderful images of Sardinia and hear all about this unique and culturally enlightening project
Sardinian-food-and-wine-an-undiscovered-treasure - simply click the link and press play on the video.
If you like what you see and you are interested in being a part of this big endeavor the following packages are available and I think you will find what she is asking versus what you get in return is immensely more of a win-win than a standard donation to PBS or the like.
The following is from Viktorija herself and I support it wholeheartedly.
The excitement for the Sardinian food and wine video is growing! The Kickstarter project is now 60% funded.
We hope you'll help us spread the word about what we're going and consider participating in this exciting adventure.
$1 pledge gets you a mention as a project contributor
$5 pledge gets you my eBook on how to make the best risotto every time
$25 pledge gets you a copy of the Sardinian food and wine video and an electronic copy of the Sardinian cookbook (release date Fall 2013) and of course the eBook on risotto
$35 pledge gets you a copy of the Sardinian food and wine video and a hard copy of the Sardinian cookbook (release date Fall 2013) and of course the eBook on risotto
$50 pledge gets your all of the rewards you get for a $35 pledge plus a signed copy of The Puglian Cookbook.
And the rewards go on, including food and wine consultations, cooking classes with me, and a fancy dinner with wine pairings.
To be a part of this, simply click HERE and let Viktorija know how you would like to help.
Part of the fun in blogging about Viktorija's amazing project has been the opportunity to return to my photos of Sardinia which I have been using in this post. Juliet and I are so enamored with Sardinia and we know you will be as well.
Please feel free to share this with any of your friends or those of you interested in sharing a little Bliss with my talented friend Viktorija Todorovska