Carbonia

Carbonia is a town in the province of Carbonia-Iglesias, Sardinia, Italy. It is located at around 39°10′2″N, 8°31′20″E.

Description

Carbonia is situated in a beautiful part of Sardinia. The city is surrounded by spectacular hills that allow anyone bold enough to climb them a vision reaching as far as the sea and the peninsular island of Antiocho.

It was officially opened on the 18th of December 1938. Mussolini himself ordered the building of the city and was present at its opening ceremony. The city was build in order to provide housing for the workforce of the nearby mines. The name Carbonia comes from the resource (amorphous carbonia) that was abundant in this region.

Carbonia has grown considerably since its birth in 1938, now boasting a population of over 30.000 thousand. Since the mines were closed during the 1970s Carbonia has had to deal with a high unemployment rate that is so common in towns in the southern part of Italy. Most Carbonians now find their employment in the heavy industry or transport sector. The town is poor however and youth occupation is high even by Italian standards.

Tourism

Carbonia is about an hour by car from Cagliari and about two by train. Though the city is one of the largest on the island it does not offer much to foreign tourists. The city centre is unimpressive and provides little shopping oppurtunities. There are a few excellent restaurants though that offer high quality food at little cost.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Carbonia".