TREKKING TO GUGLIELMO MARCONI’S OBSERVATORY

CALA MORESCA

After about 10-15 minutes walk you’ll arrive at a series of beaches, the last one being Cala Moresca. Soft white sand and turquoise water sheltered from Northern winds make it a great place for swimming.

From Cala Moresca you can choose whether to follow a path at the end of the beach and another path on the back of the beach. The first leads to the summit of Capo Figari and its Semaphore. The second circles around Mount Ruju and takes you back to Golfo Aranci in about 90 minutes walk among perfumed junipers and Mediterranean bushes.

FIGAROLO

The beach of Cala Moresca is also protected by a small islet, called Figarolo. Archaeological findings confirm that the island was known to traders from Phoenicia – today’s Lebanon. In fact, both Phoenicians first and Romans later used to sail these waters from Olbia – originally a Phoenician town – to Rome and Etruria (Tuscany).

LIME FURNACE – INDUSTRIAL HISTORY

At the beginning of the lovely trekking path around Mount Ruju, you’ll have the chance of making a short stroll into the past by visiting the ruins of a lime furnace. In fact, Capo Figari had been an extraction production location of powdered lime since Medieval times.

The furnace and its tower were built in 1967 at the apex of the lime production business. The electrical plant was so advanced at the time that operators just couldn’t manage to run it smoothly. The introduction of chemical additives in the treatment of lime put an end to operations in Capo Figari.

Keep your distance from the buildings as the whole area has been abandoned for over 50 years

ENGLISH CEMETERY

A bifurcation on the road takes you down to the English Cemetery – Cimitero Inglese in Italian – and Cala Greca, a solitary bay among the rocks.

The cemetery is made up by thirteen tombs and a marble tombstone. The latter was placed there in 1891 by the crew of the maritime company Navigazione Generale Italiana in honour of the 5 sailors of Generoso II who shipwreck in 1887 next to Cala Greca.

The name of English Cemetery comes from the belief by the inhabitants of Golfo Aranci that all bodies were those of Englishmen. They were mistaken by the large Celtic cross, the only readable one, of the cemetery. In reality, only one sailor was English. The others were Italian although none of their identities has ever been confirmed.

Try not to get spooked, especially if visiting at sunset, when the place is completely silent and a cool sea air sweeps up from Cala Greca over the anonymous tombs.

CALA GRECA

If you follow the path down from the English Cemetery you’ll arrive at a small cove made of rocks and sheltered by winds.

At night you can see the water of the cove lit by the presence of Alicia Mirabilis Johnson. While this particular sea plant stays closed during the day, at night it opens up its light-emitting urticating tentacles – some reaching one metre in length – for a unique kind of spectacle.

SEMAPHORE

The Semaphore of Capo Figari is the most renowned of all Sardinian Semaphores. These are buildings that were erected at the end of the 1800s so that messages could be sent to passing boats with a combination of flag signals.

Between 1930 and 1932 scientist and Nobel laureate Guglielmo Marconi came to Capo Figari with a team of technicians and identified the place as the ideal reception point for ultra-low frequency signals he intended to transmit from Rocca del Papa, next to Rome. He did so with great success on 11 August 1932.

His invention meant that boats could now use waves to communicate thereby making all semaphores obsolete. This one made no exception and was abandoned after World War II.

Walk among the buildings and feel like being in a parallel reality. The semaphore itself looks like a strange boat that somehow stranded on this mountaintop.

It’s a ghastly feeling that oddly enough makes this semaphore all the more charming in its ruined condition.

THE VIEW FROM THE OBSERVATORY

The great view will make you jump for joy.