When we were walking in the streets of the old town of Alghero in Sardinia in Italy, we noticed that many shops were selling coral jewellery.
According to our guidebook and our research on the internet, the area around Alghero is known as the “Coral Riviera”.
The corals from the underwater caves around this town have been famous for their beautiful colour and hardness since ancient times.
They used to be called “Blood of Medusa” and they first appeared in documents as far back as 700 AD.
Even now they are precious, not only due to over-harvesting but also because changes in water temperature and the increase in pollution affect the health of the coral colonies.
For coral to survive and grow, the salt concentration in the sea is very important; it has to stay between 28 – 40% apparently.
That means that in the future the scarcity of Sardinian coral will increase as well as the price.
I have to buy one now then.
So, we went to a shop which I had already marked in my mind on the evening on the last day.
I bought a silver ring set with the natural coral.
The man at the shop made it himself.
He was a typical artist or an engineer who was not good at sales talk.
I do not think he was suitable to tend the shop.
Anyway, he gave me a certificate confirming that this is a Sardinian coral.
When my husband asked about this certificate, he muttered “Some of the shops sell coral which is imported. They are real corals but of a cheap kind and painted artificially”.
In fact I had noticed that some shops were selling huge amount of very red coral necklaces and I felt they were not genuine.
Since we were buying the coral in Sardinia, it is better to buy authentic Sardinian coral even though it was more expensive, isn’t it.
He put the ring in a small bag made of cork which is another speciality in Sardinia.
This shopping was the last thing we did during our short Sardinian holiday.
As for the flight on the way back, after we boarded the aeroplane, they found some technical problem and we all had to get off.
And we had to wait for 3 and a half hours at the airport.
We got up very early for nothing and we had to worry about our connection in Milan, which in the end was OK.
By the way, because we stayed so long at the airport, we used the toilet which was surprisingly the Japanese style (or similar to that).
In Italy they call it “Toilette alla Turca (Turkish toilet)” and we sometimes see them in some small cafes on the outskirts of towns, but I did not expect to see it at the airport.
[ May 2018 ]
Sardinian corals refer to the species of corals found in the waters around the island of Sardinia, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea. These corals are primarily of the red coral species (Corallium rubrum), which is highly valued for its use in jewelry making.
Sardinian red corals have been harvested for centuries and are considered to be some of the finest in the world due to their deep red color and durability. However, overfishing and environmental degradation have led to a decline in the population of Sardinian corals, and there are now regulations in place to protect them.
In addition to red corals, other species of corals can be found in the waters around Sardinia, including gorgonian corals and black corals. These corals provide important habitat for a variety of marine species and play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the marine ecosystem.
