For its admirers, in just over a year it has rightfully entered the city skyline. For the detractors, however, the city finally regains its beauty. Open debate. What is certain is that the last tour is scheduled for Sunday 24 October, after which the eleven thousand colored LED lights that have been lighting up Via Roma for fourteen months will go out: the Ferris wheel will leave the city to move to Salerno where at least one year. The City Eye, owner of the wheel, after having obtained the extension of five months from the port authority (to compensate for the forced stop due to Covid) closes its Cagliari experience. "An experience marked by the pandemic and in any case very positive", underlines Diego Davoli, the company representative and the man who brought the wheel to the city. «It was a bet, a bet won because many did not believe in the potential of a city like Cagliari. Instead, despite the pandemic, the numbers have proved us right, ”he adds.

The numbers

So let's see these numbers: from the first round, on 8 August last, to the last one before the stop imposed by Covid, on 25 October last, over fifty thousand tickets were sold. "A record for a city like Cagliari," explains Davoli. Then from the reopening, last April, to today, the tickets sold have been just under thirty thousand. "A physiological decline, also influenced by the fear of Covid," he explains. «In general, however, the Ferris wheel is a spectacle that attracts and intrigues at the beginning», and this explains the reason for the initial success, «then it becomes less and less an attraction for residents and more and more for tourists». Inevitable, at this point turn everything off. "In the end, however, the experience is still comforting," adds Davoli. "The Ferris wheel is an idea that I have always espoused since the first moment I arrived in the councilorship," says Alessandro Sorgia, councilor for productive activities. «This experience has brought Cagliari to the level of other tourist cities. When the wheel disappears from Via Roma at the end of the month, I am sure that there will be a void for all Cagliari citizens ».

The spacecraft

On the extra-large disc, which turns taking you to the top 55 meters high and offers an extraordinary view over the whole city, from the Sella del Diavolo to the Bastione, from the Santa Gilla lagoon to the Molentargius park, you can still climb for three weeks: the 36 air-conditioned “spacecraft” made of transparent glass allow you to admire the 360-degree panorama. On each, a multilingual voice tells curiosities and stories, but also the typical foods and crafts of the city. "This choice was also made from a tourist point of view", explains the commissioner Sorgia.

The future

The wheel, it is worth remembering, was a completely private initiative that to some extent represented a symbol of the city's recovery after Covid. "We have extended the concession for five months to meet the company that was forced to stop the wheel between October 2020 and April 2021", explains Massimo Deiana, president of the Adsp del mare di Sardegna. "The dismantling operations should have started on Monday 4 October, but due to the concomitance of the beach volleyball event we asked the company to stay another 20 days to avoid having a construction site while the event is taking place". In three weeks, therefore, the farewell. Which, at least in via Roma, will be definitive. "The port authority, which together with the Municipality and the captaincy, allowed the Wheel to arrive in Cagliari does not plan to host more activities like this," explains Davoli. "So if the Wheel returns to Cagliari it will be in another place in the city." Maybe in Su Siccu or in viale La Plaia, as some speculated when criticizing the choice of via Roma.

But. Mad.

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