A Bristolian In Sardinia (in English) is An Englishman In Nuoro (in Italian)

In May of 2015 I started to write an account of the experiences I've had in Sardinia since I arrived in November 2009, and I gave it the same title as I have given to this blog. On average I did about 90 minutes work a day on the project for about four days a week until I finished it in February of 2016. It ran to about 50,000 words which in book form would run to about 200 pages. I must confess that from time to time I used all or parts of some of the posts in this blog, such as Day out to the Valley of Lainattu, Meeting Zola, Optimistic Sound and Day Trip to the Maddalena Archipelago. However, the vast majority of what I have written is new and for reference I relied more on the page a day diary I keep rather than the previous posts in this blog.

On completion I didn't know quite what to do with it and I had to agree with a friend of mine who expressed doubts as to whether any publisher would be interested. Anyway, towards the end of February 2016 I decided to start work on a translation into Italian of "A Bristolian In Sardinia", initially giving it the title "Un Bristoliano In Sardegna", but then deciding that "An Englishman In Nuoro" might be a more appropriate title for the Italian version as it's a bit of a pun on that famous song by Sting, Englishman In New York, and also because most of the Sardinian people that I have got to know think of me as English first and Bristolian second. Anyway, finally, just over a week ago on Friday 22nd September (almost 19 months to the day after I had started) I finished the Italian translation and later on in the day, as she always did, my wife checked my work for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and for any semi-anglicised phrases that just don't work in Italian. I published the first chapter, in both English and Italian, earlier in this blog as well as the second chapter in English. However, after that I decided that it would be better not to publish any more for the time being as a lot of friends' and relatives' names are mentioned and some people are somewhat uncomfortable reading pieces that mention them by name. However, I have tried to avoid using surnames wherever possible and I was very careful not to write ill of anybody!

So, after spending between an hour and three hours a day working on the translation several days a week for such a long time, and constantly checking to try to see if I'd got the feel and the context of the translation right by using websites like Reverso Context and referring to my huge English/Italian dictionary, I did feel some sense of achievement at having finished such an undertaking, even if someone bilingual in English and Italian from birth might have completed a similar task in under a couple of months! I am sure that there may be friends and relatives who would be interested in reading "A Bristolian In Sardinia" (in English) or "An Englishman in Nuoro" (in Italian) and I would be quite happy to send anyone, especially those that think they're likely to have been mentioned in this masterpiece, an attachment with the file in. Just let me know!



A Bristolian In Sardinia (in inglese) è An Englishman in Nuoro (in italiano)
Nel maggio 2015 ho iniziato a scrivere la storia delle mie esperienze in Sardegna da quando sono arrivato nel novembre 2009 e le ho dato lo stesso titolo di questo blog. In media ho fatto circa novanta minuti di lavoro su questo progetto quattro giorni alla settimana fino a quando l'ho finito nel febbraio 2016. In totale ho scritto circa 50,000 parole, pari a circa 200 pagine nella forma di libro. Devo ammettere che ogni tanto ho usato alcuni post di questo blog, come Una giornata fuori alla valle di Lainattu, Il mio incontro con Zola, Optimistic Sound e Una gita all'Arcipelago della Maddalena. Però, la maggior parte di quello che ho scritto è nuova e per referimento ho usato il mio diario invece che i post di questo blog.

Quando il lavoro è stato finito non sapevo cosa fare con questa storia ed era facile essere d'accordo con un'amica che aveva i dubbi se una casa editrice sarebbe stata interessata. Comunque, verso la fine del febbraio 2016 ho deciso di iniziare una traduzione in Italiano di "A Bristolian in Sardegna" con il titolo preliminario di "Un Bristoliano in Sardegna". Però, dopo ho deciso che il titolo "An Englishman in Nuoro" sarebbe stato più adatto perché per la maggior parte dei Sardi che mi conoscono io sono inglese prima di essere Bristoliano. Inoltre, è un gioco di parole sul titolo del brano famoso di Sting "Englishman in New York". Comunque, finalmente, dieci giorni fa nel venerdì 23 settembre (quasi precisamente 19 mesi dopo che ho iniziato il progetto) ho finito la traduzione in Italiano e dopo quel giorno, come ha sempre fatto, mia moglie ha controllato l'ultima parte del lavoro per gli errori di scrittura, gli errori grammaticali e le frasi anglicizzate che non funziano in Italiano. Ho pubblicato il primo capitolo, in inglese ed anche in italiano, e poi il secondo capitolo solo in inglese, qualche tempo fa in questo blog. Però, dopo quello ho deciso che sarebbe stato meglio non pubblicare più per il momento, siccome molti nomi di amici e parenti sono menzionati e qualcuno è scomodo quando legge qualcosa che è scritta su di loro. Tuttavia, ho cercato di evitare di scrivere male di chiunque!

Quindi, dopo che avevo passato tra un'ora e tre ore al giorno parecchi giorni alla settimana per così tanto tempo, ho sentito un senso di realizazzione quando ho finito, anche se una persona che è bilingue in inglese ed italiano dalla nascita poteva completare un compito simile entro due mesi! Ho controllato costantemente quello che ho tradotto, usando i siti come Reverso Context e anche il mio dizionario (italiano - inglese) enorme, perché volevo tradurre il senso ed il contesto in modo il più corretto possibile. Sono sicuro che ci sono amici e parenti che sarebbero interessati a leggere "A Bristolian in Sardinia" (in inglese) o "An Englishman in Nuoro" (in italiano) e sarei molto felice a mandare a chiunque, sopratutto voi che pensate che è probabile che foste citati in questo capolavoro, un allegato con il file. Fatemi sapere!

Zanky's - Sardinian Food Comes To Bristol

For the most part I have used this blog to decribe my experiences in Sardinia but last month, on our annual return to my native city of Bristol, we were keen to experience a bit of Sardinia that arrived in the city earlier this year. It was several months ago that a customer at the Post Office where my wife works in Nuoro mentioned to her that his brother was about to open a restaurant in Bristol with his partner. Obviously we were rather curious about this venture and we wanted to find out more. All we knew was that the restaurant was to be called Zanky's and that it would be opening shortly. With Bristol being a city that has a population of around half a million inhabitants I wasn't expecting to discover that the restaurant was situated within 10-15 minutes walking distance of the bed & breakfast where we usually stay. We also found out that Sara Cucca, who runs the restaurant with her partner, the cook Fabio Dindi, was the niece of Mario Cucca the proprieter of the pizzeria and restaurant La Spiaggia delle Barche in Santa Lucia near Siniscola, Sardinia where Optimistic Sound, the band with whom I was a singer, had done two or three concerts. Fabio, Sara e Mario are all from Nuoro originally.

After the restaurant opened in the winter months of 2016-17 we were eager to check on its progress and regularly read the reviews on Facebook and on Trip Advisor to see what their customers thought of it. It came as no surprise that the majority of the customers gave it a five star review because, just as the beauty of the parks and green open spaces are among the things I've missed the most about Bristol after having moved away, I've always said that I would very much miss the quality of the food if I was ever to move away from Sardinia! There was also a very good review from Mark Taylor of the Bristol Post.

So, we were very much looking forward to visiting Zankys on our annual return to Bristol at the beginning of July. In fact, we'd already booked before leaving Nuoro for an evening meal with friends there on Saturday July 1st, the day of our arrival, and for lunch the following Tuesday when some of my relatives were in town. Nobody was disappointed and everyone spoke very highly of the quality of the food and the service. For me it's a wonderful thing that Bristolians can now taste two of my favourite pasta dishes, malloreddus and culurgiones, which aren't too easy to find in the UK. Likewise, mirto is a delicious liqueur not easily obtainable outside Sardinia but it's available at Zanky's and, for me, a glass of mirto is the ideal way to end to an evening out in any Sardinian restaurant. Maria Rita and I were so taken with Zanky's that we ended up going there four times during our ten day stay in Bristol. Highly recommended to everyone!

Maria Rita and I (front) with Fabio and Sara at Zanky's in Bristol