For some time now the site did not have a working RSS feed. That has now changed and RSS is relaunched again. The incentive really came from the implementation of a new flashxml component on the main page. This component loads a RSS feed based on XML, and while I was working on generating this feed it seemed logical to revive the possibility to subscribe to this feed directly. On my page on RSS for this site I explain how you can add the url to your feedreader (or browser if you like).

The feed will give you regular updates on changes on the site. Whenever new articles are published you will be informed through the weblog and the RSS feed. Another way to follow updates is by following me on Twitter. Both feed and Twitter are used to give updates, even though Twitter also contains updates in dutch and italian language.

Should you wish to know more about the component used on the main page, you can find it on the website of FLASHXML.NET, where I acquired it. It is very flexible and can be adjusted to the flavour of your website and you can use it to show external feeds as well (from other websites). You can even run several instances of the component on the same page.

Besides the archaeological sites we visited, we managed to dedicate also some time to cultural and naturalistic sites. We were amazed at the sight of the wall paintings at Tinnura, one of those villages just behind Bosa. The paintings enlived the streets. They represented the life and work of common people of the Sardinian countryside. Just take a look in the photo gallery.

The second week of our stay in Sardinia would be dedicated to the family. Nonetheless we managed to visit some marvellous places. When travelling from Bosa southwards the first marvel is the panoramic view from the town of Cuglieri. Even though it is several kilometers away from the coast you can overlook the coast from Bosa to the peninsula of Sinis. The town itself is very characteristic. From Cuglieri we arrived in Santa Caterina di Pittinuri. The coast is splendid with the chalkstone cliffs where the sea carved a tunnel through it, like the passage under a bridge. This place is called s'Archittu, the arch.

One day we visited the peninsula of Sinis, to see the beautiful beaches of Is Aruttas and San Giovanni. As there was some wind and clouds the coast at the northern end, near Su Pallosu, was an impressive panorama. Although it was the finest weather to take a bath in the green-blue sea, it was nonetheless pleasant to visit the beaches. Particularly Is Aruttas with it's beach of grains of quarz which is unlike any other beach. But it was also good to see the site of Tharros again and the beach of San Giovanni, which for me remains the top number one.

Another day we visited the Giara of Gesturi. This highland plateau has a particular flora and fauna. Because it had just rained there was abundant water on the Giara, these ponds are called pauli and usually fall dry in summer. The highland flora is characterised by the macchia mediterranea, the corkoak, and the pastures where the wild horses graze. These wild horses belong to a typical species called Cavallino della Giara and wander freely over the highland plateau.

We payed a second visit to the church of Santa Giusta. We had been there before but it remains one of the most fascinating churches in it's kind. It was built around 1135 in the heydays of the medieval Giudicate of Arborea. In the interior architectural elements have been reused from roman and byzantine times and others were copied from roman models. Each column that supports the ship of the church is different, and each capital is likewise unique. The same was done in the crypt of the church, using for every column a different material and a different capital. After that we did some shopping in the medieval town centre of Oristano.

I also had the occasion to visit an archaeological site near Terralba where excavations were being done by the University of Glasgow and the University of Valencia. It was a punic rural site, as around Terralba (near the site of Neapolis) had been a flourishing area in punic times with much agricultural activity. If you want to know more about it I can reccommend reading the work of Peter van Dommelen, On Colonial Grounds.

On our way back we still had time left before taking the flight to Holland. We payed a small visit to Fertilia. Here you can see one of the longest roman bridges that spanned the entrance of the lagoon of Calik near Alghero. Fertilia itself was built in the twenties and thirties of the previous century, just like Arborea (that was called Mussolinia). The architecture is similar to that of the School of Amsterdam of the twenties. From Fertilia you have a wonderful view overlooking the bay where you can see the town of Alghero.

So far our journey to Sardinia. We have gathered a lot of material to be published on the site in due time. Ofcourse we are already considering a next trip, maybe to the interior of Sardinia to visit places like the cave of Tiscali, to see the mountains of the Gennargentu, and maybe taste some of the best Sardinian Cannonau from the wineries there.

In the month of june of 2010 we payed a visit to Sardinia. Starting from the airport of Eindhoven in the Netherlands we landed at Fertilia Airport near Alghero. The first night we had arranged a B&B near the airport, B&B La Rucchetta. The first day we visited two sites near Alghero: the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju and the nuraghe site of Palmavera. Both sites are important archaeological sites for Sardinia, the first because it is a large necropolis of 38 graves ranging from the neolithic to the bronze age, similar to the Domus de Janas, the second is an important nuragic site near the sea.

The same day we proceeded to Bosa along the coast line, a very exciting panoramic road that shows Sardinia in all it's roughness and the beauty of it's sea. We stayed about a week at Bosa, in a very cosy hotel at Bosa Marina, Hotel Stella Maris. Bosa is a particularly nice town, with a very specific architecture that reminds of Liguria, and the large castle of the Malaspina that guards the route inland. Bosa has it's origins in punic-roman towns, when it was located more inland near the church of San Pietro Extramuros. We found an excellent restaurant where we tried out the different menus based on land and seafood, but also some traditional Sardinian dessert called Seadas. The restaurant is called Corso 82 and is located in one of the old buildings of the towncentre.

Bosa was our starting point for our morning excursions. We try to keep our outside activity to the mornings, and when the sun starts to shine and the heat becomes unbearable we find ourselves a shady spot to have some lunch. The afternoon is then dedicated to either the beach or the town to do some shopping and looking around. Our first excursion brought us to the large and impressive nuraghe site of Santu Antine near Torralba. It has impressed me most because of the almost delicate and refined architecture for such a large massive looking construction. The next stop was the likewise impressive necropolis of Sant'Andrea Priu near Bonorva, just a few miles from Santu Antine. The largest grave of Sant'Andrea Priu, since the neolithic in uise, had been transformed first to a Roman gravechamber with affrescoes and then to a Byzantine church with medieval affrescoes. This site is definitely worthwhile visiting.

Our next excursion was directed at the site of Tamuli near Macomer. This site consists of three giants tombs, a large nuraghe and village and six menhirs. Three of the menhirs have female tracts, breasts, while the other three would represent phallus symbols (the male side). This site and the next we were advised to visit are maintained by a group of young people that are part of a cooperation. Many sites in Sardinia have been given to cooperations that exploit and maintain the sites on behalf of the local administrations. Tourism this way can be a source of income. The second site we visited was that of Filigosa, the site that gave the name to one of the neolithic periods of Sardinia, the culture of Abealzu-Filigosa. Here there are four Domus de Janas, grave chambers cut in the rock of an impressiveness that will leave you stunned. It is not so much that there are gravechambers, but the fact that Sardinia counts so many gravechambers and so many nuraghi is what makes the island so mysterious.

When travelling to Sardinia the first question is how to get there. The next question is where to stay and in what kind of accommodation; either a hotel, a bed and breakfast, an agritourism, a camping. Which websites are trustworthy and provide you with the right information you can rely on? These are all questions that seem easy to answer with internet at hand, but once plunged into the vast pool of information a choice is hard to make in the end. First of all you will have to rely on what your friends and family advise you and then go by reputation of the website. Some websites offer the possibility to leave comments on hotels or other accommodations, or comments on restaurants. Still your taste may not be that of others. There is no other solution than to check for yourself and to make your choice based on your own preferences.

It was this that drove me to start an interactive map, using Google maps, to display accommodations, restaurants and services (ports and airports) based on my preferences of choice. In other words I try to show those accommodations and restaurants that have favourable reviews, from sites that inspire some trustworthiness, to help you in making your choice based on your own preferences. If you cannot find it directly on the map you can always browse through the various websites and look for alternatives that fit your purpose. And if you want to start planning your trip you can click on the ports and airports, find the best ferry to bring you to Sardinia, or the easiest company to fly you to Alghero, Olbia or Cagliari.

Apart from charts and maps I have a passion for statistics and graphs. Through my work I learned of Fusioncharts and they offer free components to create nice animated barcharts and graphs of all kinds. Ofcourse the free version has its limitations, but nevertheless it can make your site look more professional when you have to present graphs and charts. The first barchart I created is based on the votes for this site. My visitors can pass their judgement (good, indifferent, could be better) and then get presented with the overall result. Ofcourse voting can only be done once, but the result can be viewed as many times as you like. The trick is by the way that people that don't like my site won't even pass their judgement, but I added the possibility to give comments should they wish to.

Making a barchart based on a database is not so difficult. Fusioncharts provides good examples and you can get a result fairly easy. You can either pass your data through an XML call or read in your data and create an xml variable with php that can be passed to the chart. Integration with javascript and php is quite simple and straightforward.