Sardinia

An exploration of Sardinia's rich history and culture, featuring shipwrecks, ancient castles and underwater ruins.
Tourism in Sardinia is booming, yet there is nothing else in print that deals with the island's incredibly rich history and culture, which stretches back to the Neolithic period. This book details everyone from the Phoenicians to the Carthaginians and Aragonese who invaded Sardinia, which is covered with some of the most fascinating historical and archaeological sites in Europe--from thousands of nuraghi, Bronze Age towers and settlements, to "giant's grave" and "fairy house" tombs. It also holds eccentric festivals, from Barbagia's carnival parade of ghoulish mamuthones, said to banish winter demons, to the death-defying S'Ardia horse race in Sedilo. There are shipwrecks off Cagliari's coast, underwater caves and submerged Roman ruins in addition to ancient castles, churches, undisturbed hilltop villages and 2,000 miles of some of the most beautiful coastline in the world.

Edward Burman grew up in Cambridge and studied Philosophy and Fine Art at the University of Leeds in the UK. He lived in Rome for three years, where he studied art, learnt Italian, and wrote articles for the local English-language newspaper. He then lived in Tehran, where he worked as an editor and became fascinated by the country's history and literature. Back in Italy, Burman wrote various books on occult subjects and Italian culture and taught in the universities of L'Aquila and Bologna.