Forgotten World (141): Sardinia
It’s been two months since I’ve run a week of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 140 entries here.
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). The island – with a population of 1.7 million – is a constitutional part of Italy, with a special statute of regional autonomy under the Italian Constitution.
Sardinia is one of two Italian regions whose inhabitants have been recognized as a “popolo” (i.e. a distinct people) by a local Statute (which is adopted with a Constitutional Law). The other region is Veneto (but this was not through a Constitutional Law). The most spoken language in Sardinia is, undoubtedly, Italian, but Sardinian – a Romance language of Latin origin – is widely spoken too in the inner areas.
The Sardinian economy is today focused on tourism, mining, commerce, services and information technology.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
We have customers in both these semi-autonomous regions (although the northern one is actually Alto Adige rather than Veneto) as for both there is more E.U. or government grant money made available to keep them happy to stay Italian. The people in the north used a description of the Sardinians which indicates the low esteem in which they are held – it translates as “Easter Islanders”!