Orgosolo: Sardinia Blue Zone Tour

A Make Me Italy adventure

Great hiking on routes with incredible views; firsthand into history, archaeology, shepherds’ lives and extinct traditions.

symbol of the extraordinary natural environment that surrounds it, is not only the center of Barbagia: it is the beating heart of Sardinia and one of the last bastions of a specific pre-modern feeling that places the dèmos at the center of society and related activities in contempt of private property, capitalism and every form of modern oligarchy.

It is not a coincidence that the municipality of Orgosolo remains a very rare example of virtuous application of “civic use”, a right of collective enjoyment of community assets, including land.
Known as the town of murals, it is one of the largest municipalities in internal Sardinia.

At a thousand meters above sea level, among the ancient paths of the Supramontan shepherds, immersed in the truest Sardinia, the refuge from which the excursion starts is an extraordinary place in which stay and from which set off to venture out to discover the Sas Baddes forest, the Nuraghe Mereu (magnificent example of Nuragic art located in the heart of the limestone massif) of the Gorroppu Gorge (canyon with high vertical walls), or of the Nuragic village of Tiscali, built inside a karst sinkhole.

On horseback, on mountain bike or E-bike, this is the base camp from which set out in search of unique corners and panoramas, among paths rich in the scents of spontaneous aromatic herbs, always present in the roasts, sausages and cheeses that can be tasted inside the characteristic "pinnetti", (ancient sheepfolds built in stone and wood) in contact with the local shepherds.

The territory is characterized by the rugged and wild Supramonte plateau: 50 square kilometers of uncontaminated nature with the primeval holm oak forest among the largest in Europe: Sas Baddes.

Further down the town the high hills of Sorasi and the sunny plateau of Locoe extend, land that has always been suitable to agriculture, mainly vines and olive trees. The grapes for the production of the wines you will taste come from these two areas, lands of granitic nature.

Community wines are born from the feeling of sharing, friendship and altruism: the vineyards, set at different altitudes in uncontaminated and magical landscapes, produce sweet and robust grapes. They represent a unique model of virtuous application of a community philosophy. The uncontaminated production sites are subjected to processes aimed at preserving biochemical fertility and soil water reserves. The producers' association directs its efforts to the conservation of the varietal heritage of the centenary vineyards, promoting a thousand-year-old culture of eurythmic coexistence with nature. The natural wines produced express the truth and power of the territory without filters.

The first mural was born almost by chance and represents an "unbalanced scales of justice". It was created by a group of Milanese anarchists who fled to Sardinia during the years of student protest (1968).

However, it was in the early 1970s that the phenomenon of muralism was born organically on the initiative of a young Sienese teacher, Francesco Del Casino, who moved to Orgosolo, where he had accepted the position of art education teacher in the local middle school. Del Casino's work, supported by his students and imitated by other artists, transforms the gray walls of the houses of Orgosolo into colorful representations: the themes are very different: from topics of public outcry to political, cultural and environmental issues. Today it is a kind of "wall newspaper" to which the people of Orgosolo remain very attached and which is visited by thousands of tourists every year.