Fabrizio Sanna
A barefoot race
The Corsa degli Scalzi is an annual event that takes place on the streets of Cabras. During the Saturday before the first Sunday in September, hundreds of revelers dressed in white tunics run barefoot along a 7-kilometer route to carry the statue of San Salvatore de Cabras to a small village dedicated to the saint. The next day, the route is reversed and the statue is run home again. This tradition dates back to the age of Saracen piracy when North African pirates regularly invaded Sardinia in search of loot. During one of these invasions, the inhabitants of San Salvatore grabbed the statue of their saint in order to protect it and ran it down to the village of Cabras.
The mass of running villagers kicked up so much dust that the invading pirates thought that it surely must have been an army on the march. Fearing a confrontation, they retreated back to their boats.
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