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SA?ssari
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Sardinia's second city,
SA?SSARI
, combines an insular, traditional feel, as embodied in its well-preserved tangle of lanes in the old quarter, with a forward-looking, confident air that is most evident in its modern centre. Historically, while CA?gliari was Pisa's base of operations during the Middle Ages, SA?ssari was the Genoan capital, ruled by the Doria family, whose power reached throughout the Mediterranean. Under the Aragonese it became an important centre of Spanish hegemony, and the Spanish stamp is still strong, not least in its churches. In the sixteenth century the Jesuits founded Sardinia's first
university
here, and the intellectual tradition has survived, particularly in the political sphere. In recent years, SA?ssari has produced two national presidents - Antonio Segni and Francesco Cossiga - as well as the long-time head of the Italian Communist Party, Enrico Berlinguer (1922-84) - a cousin, incidentally, of the Christian Democrat Cossiga.
Note that if you're coming to SA?ssari by
train
, you'll probably have to change at Ozieri-Chilivani station, outside the nondescript town of Chilivani Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Italy,
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