In the southwestern corner of the second-largest island in the Mediterranean, lies the town of Iglesias. The Island I am referring to is of course, Sardinia, directly south of Corsica and a few clicks northwest of Sicily. I’m betting you’ve never heard of Iglesias, and to be completely frank, neither had I until last summer. However, I have longed for many years to visit this glistening jewel in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and keen as I was for a break from work, I happened upon some very attractive and reasonable accommodation and booked it.

Emerging from Cagliari Airport, it was a very short walk to the nearby railway station where I waited patiently for my transport to Iglesias and what would be my home for the next 10 days. After a swift, nighttime journey across the island, my host Luciano and his wife Becky, were dutifully waiting for me at the small station where we both discovered that I could not speak Italian and they could not speak English. What to do? Well, it was Google Translate to the rescue, and before we knew it, literally nothing was lost in translation. Such is the modern techy world we now inhabit.

I was given a whistle stop tour of my lovely accommodation with a rapid explanation of the functionality of various devices, most notably, the air conditioning and the coffee maker. Then, late as it was, we made the short walk into the centre of Iglesias and stopped at a busy gastropub called Birroteca Fermentazioni Spontanee (Brewery Spontaneous Fermentations) on Via Cagliari. Luciano, having gone over and above the call of duty, left me in peace to savour the atmosphere and excitement of my new environment.

My menu choice for the evening was an immaculately presented and sumptuously tasting amberjack steak, washed down with a local beer (well it was hot, with day time temperatures regularly reaching mid 30’s), and by then I was very thirsty after all my travelling endeavours for the day that had begun many hours previous in Clifton, Bristol. I had a strong sense that I was going to really enjoy myself here in the hitherto unknown town of Iglesias. Tune in for the next episode, as they say…