The Perfect Union
Every year in the coldest weeks of the winter season, strange sculptures begin to appear in the fields all over the island. It is the moment for grafting.
Wild olive trees grow throughout the island and they produce perfectly tiny olives with a thin and bitter skin. However, though the oil from wild olives is supposedly superior to that of domesticated varieties, the yield is much, much lower. And so the grafting game begins. Wild olive trees grow throughout the island and they produce perfectly tiny olives with a thin and bitter skin. However, though the oil from wild olives is supposedly superior to that of domesticated varieties, the yield is much, much lower. And so the grafting game begins.
Floris Campanacci
When Marco Floris was young, his father encouraged him to study and prepare for a life off of the island. But he soon realized that he was going to have to rebel, and insisted on coming home to work alongside his father making the traditional bells that are used both for pasture and for rituals in Sardinia. These brass coated bells are cooked in heavy clay barrels and take a trained ear and eye to prepare correctly. Tonara, the town where the Floris' are from, has been known for its bell production for many generations. Today, there are only two families left that continue to produce the bells.
What is your favorite place in Sardinia?
It changes all the time. There are places I always return to, like little bays near Cala Goloritzé or Sa Prama. But I still feel like I'm discovering the island, like I don't know all of it yet. So maybe I still haven't discovered my favorite place.
