First Visits to the Nuorese Football Stadium

I've been in Nuoro for seven months now but it's only recently that I've paid my first visits to the Nuorese football stadium, which perhaps is rather surprising since the stadium is only about twenty minutes walk away from where we live and because I've always been a football enthusiast. The first time I went was when Maria Rita and I went to see a concert that was held there on Saturday evening, May 15th to celebrate la festa di Voci di Maggio. It was surprisingly cold and I could have been forgiven for thinking that I was back in England! However, the entertainment was of excellent quality although we had to wait until the end of the evening before the better known acts appeared. As far as I'm aware nearly all the acts were from Sardinia and there was an interesting variety, ranging from some beautiful choral singing of traditional Sardinian songs in Sardo to modern pop and rock music sung mostly in Italian. One performer not Sardinian was the beautiful young Sicilian singer Dulcenera; famous in Italy, she has a wonderfully powerful voice with perfect pitch and was a real joy to listen to. The headline act was Istentales, a rock band from Nuoro who have huge support in Sardinia and who regularly perform on the Italian mainland. The sheer energy of their unique brand of music, fusing rock with the influence of their Sardinian roots, was so impressive and very refreshing. Their charismatic frontman Gigi Sanna was largely responsible for organising the festa.

My next visit to the stadium was on Friday May 21st when we went to watch the annual charity football match taking place between Nuorese and Cagliari, the only team in Serie A from Sardinia. Footballing legend Gianfranco Zola comes from Oliena, a town very close to Nuoro, and signed his first professional contract for Nuorese when they were in C2, the Italian equivalent of League 2. Italian football has since been re-organised and Nuorese now languish a few leagues below league status. Zola also finished his playing career at Cagliari after leaving Chelsea.

The weather was much warmer than the previous Saturday so we were able to sit in the evening sun and enjoy the football which for me, an Englishman, was very interesting to watch. However, unsurprisingly, it wasn't a very competitive or physical game. Cossu and Marchetti, Cagliari's two players in Italy's World Cup Squad didn't play but several players well-known in Italian football did - Matri, Jeda, Conti and Agostini. I thought Cagliari might win quite comfortably but although they went 3-0 up, two goals from Nuorese in the last five minutes made the final score 3-2. I was surpised how good the Nuorese players were technically, far better than English teams in a comparable league in England but, on this evidence, not as physical. Nevertheless, I certainly hope to watch Nuorese again next season. 

Sono a Nuoro da sette mesi ora ma le mie prime visite allo stadio della Nuorese calcio erano molto recenti. Forse questo fatto è sorprendente perchè lo stadio è soltanto venti minuti a piedi da casa nostra e anche perchè sono stato sempre un appassionato di calcio. La prima volta che siamo andati allo stadio io e Maria Rita siamo andati a vedere un concerto sabato sera 15 Maggio per celebrare la festa di Voci di Maggio. Ero sorpreso perchè faceva freddo e pensavo di essere tornato in Inghilterra! Però il concerto era di ottima qualità anche se abbiamo dovuto aspettare fino a sera prima che gli artisti più conosciuti si esibissero. Pensavo che quasi tutti gli artisti fossero sardi e c'era una varietà interessante di bellissime canzoni tradizionali sarde, cantate in lingua sarda, musica rock e pop italiano. La cantante Dolcenera è siciliana ed è famosa in tutta Italia. Lei ha una voce formidabile e potente e mi è piaciuto molto ascoltarla. E finalmente arrivano gli Istentales, un gruppo di Nuoro che ha molti fans in Sardegna ed è popolare in tutta Italia. L'energia e la forza della loro musica, un misto di rock e musica tradizionale sarda, era tanto impressionante e molto vivace. Il cantante carismatico Gigi Sanna è stato il maggiore responsabile della organizzazione della festa.

La mia visita successiva allo stadio è stata il venerdi 21 Maggio per guardare la partita di calcio in beneficenza tra Nuorese e Cagliari, la sola squadra in Sardegna in Serie A. Un mito del calcio è Gianfranco Zola di Oliena, una cittadina molto vicina a Nuoro, lui ha firmato il suo primo contratto professionale per la Nuorese quando la squadra era in C2, l'equivalente di Lega 2 in Inghilterra. Da allora il calcio italiano è cambiato e adesso la Nuorese gioca in qualche campionato indietro. In seguito Zola ha finito la sua carriera come giocatore a Cagliari dopo avere lasciato il Chelsea.

Il tempo era molto più caldo del sabato prima e potevamo sederci a prendere il sole mentre seguivamo la partita. Per me, inglese, la partita era molto interessante da guardare. Però, non era una sorpresa che il gioco non era molto competitivo o fisico. Non giocavano Cossu e Marchetti, i due giocatori convocati in Nazionale ma giocavano altri giocatori famosi in Italia - Matri, Jeda, Conti e Agostini. Pensavo che il Cagliari vincesse abbastanza facilmente e prima era in vantaggio 3-0, poi la Nuorese ha segnato due gol negli ultimi cinque minuti e il risultato finale è stato 3-2. Ero sorpreso quanto bravi erano i giocatori della Nuorese tecnicamente, molto meglio delle squadre del campionato equivalente in Inghilterra ma forse meno aggressivi. Certamente spero di guardare di nuovo la Nuorese la stagione prossima.

Nuorese-Bristolese Dictionary or Dizionario

A few days ago Maria Rita and I were walking through the 'centro storico' (historic part) of Nuoro when we saw an Italiano-Nuorese pocket dictionary (Nuorese being the dialect of Sardo spoken by the inhabitants of Nuoro) in a shop window. We immediately went in and bought it. After looking through the dictionary I thought it would be fun to compile a very brief Nuorese-Bristolese dictionary. It must be stressed, however, that Sardo is an officially recognised language whereas Bristolese is a mixture of dialect words and the way Bristolians with a very strong Bristol accent pronounce certain words in English! So here it is, with the standard Italian in brackets after the Nuorese words and standard English in brackets after the Bristolese words.

Pochi giorni fa io e Maria Rita facevamo una passeggiata in centro storico di Nuoro. In vetrina abbiamo visto un dizionario "Italiano-Nuorese" (Nuorese è il dialetto Sardo che gli abitanti di Nuoro parlano). Siamo entrati subito in negozio ed abbiamo comprato il piccolo libro. Dopo avere guardato il dizionario ho pensato che sarebbe stato divertente creare un dizionario molto breve "Nuorese-Bristolese". Pero, devo dire che il Sardo è una lingua ufficiale mentre il Bristolese è un misto di parole in dialetto con le parole inglesi dei Bristoliani pronunciate con un accento di Bristol molto forte. Comunque, eccolo, con le parole in italiano standard in parentesi dopo le parole in Nuorese e le parole in inglese standard in parentesi dopo le parole in Bristolese.

Nuorese (Italiano)         Bristolese (English)

abba            (acqua)  =  wau'err         (water)

abilidade      (abilità)  =  abili'ee          (ability)

cuntentu   (contento)  =  appee           (happy)

diàulu         (diavolo)  =  devawl         (devil)

frebbe         (febbre)  =  feevurr         (fever)

furare          (rubare)  =  to still           (to steal)

furone           (ladro)  =  feef              (thief)
idea                (idea)  =  ideawl         (idea)

mannu         (adulto)  =  adawt          (adult)

mannu        (grande)  =  macky          (big)       

mascru     (maschio)  =  mell              (male)

meda           (molto)  =  gurt              (very) or   mennee    (many)

muccore       (muffa)  =  mawd          (mould)        

nerbosu    (nervoso)  =  nurvuss        (nervous)

pretzisu       (esatto)  =  zackley        (exactly)

pro                  (per)  =  furr              (for)

risurtau      (risultato)  =  rizawt           (result) 

sèmpritze  (semplice)  =  simpawl        (simple)

zenerosu  (generoso)  =  jenruss          (generous) 

zero                (zero)  =  zero              (zero)

Elias Portolu by Grazia Deledda

On my first visit to Nuoro in early November 2008, two days after my arrival, Maria Rita took me to 'Museo Deleddiano - Casa natale di Grazia Deledda' located at the old home of Nuoro's most celebrated writer who was only the second woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature when she won it in 1926. The museum, as far as it is possible, recreates the house much as it was lived in when Grazia Deledda was alive. I remember being especially struck by the study and the kitchen, both of which gave a fascinating insight into how life in Nuoro must have been lived in the late nineteenth century.

About a week ago we found and bought an English translation of Grazia Deledda's novel Elias Portolu in the nearest bookshop to home. In fact, it was about the only English language book in the entire shop. On Sunday I started reading it and I finished reading it yesterday evening. I was very taken by the poetry of her prose, breathtaking at times as it evoked in such picturesque detail the Nuoro of just over one hundred years ago and the surrounding area, much more rustic and simple than today and yet the timeless battles of the human psyche were obviously as much in evidence then as they are now and as they are always. There are still echoes of that world today. In fact, there is something almost eccentric about how in Nuoro nowadays you can walk past several blocks of high rise flats and then look out over a field towards the mountains and hear the clanging sound of the bells around the sheeps' or goats' necks just a few yards away; likewise, the sight of the few elderly women who still wear the traditional black as they walk along the street talking on their mobile phones. The physical description of the men in Nuoro - short and stocky, with ruddy to bronze complexions - was one I recognised as still being fairly predominant today too.

Sad tale though it is, Elias Portolu is an absolute joy to read. The title takes its name from the central character whose passion evoked memories of my reading of Sons And Lovers by D H Lawrence and its central charcter Paul Morel; and the Catholic guilt that torments Elias Portolu throughout, although a little less extreme, reminded me of Stephen Dedalus' struggle in James Joyce's Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. Despite her reputation as major writer in Italy the work of Grazia Deledda isn't very well known in the English language world with only a few of her titles having been translated. Shame. Elias Portolu works very well in its English translation version.