Nuoro and Orgosolo

Nuoro and Orgosolo

Nuoro is situated in the central part of the island called Barbagia. It is the most important town of the area, and offers several interesting destinations for a visit.

Our first stop is in Nuoro where is the costume museum created to become a cultural link among all the regions of the island. It was built as a complex of several buildings and each one reminds one area of Sardinia. There are various colourful traditional customs, musical instruments, jewelleries, furniture, textiles and especially the traditional carnival masks: "Mamuthones", "Issohadores" are the most famous, but there are many others that come from different villages mainly from the mountain area. Masks are made with wood and they reproduce animal heads. During carnival days in February or beginning of March, some men in different villages still put on similar masks sheep skins and cattle bells whose aim is to influence the destiny of the farming year; thus, despite their frightening appearance, their visit is awaited and welcomed, and was an opportunity to befriend them with offers of food and drink.

Another interesting visit in Nuoro that can be done in Nuoro is the Museum Grazia Deledda (1871 - 1936); the native house of the famous Sardinian writer who won the Nobel price for literature in 1926. The museum is composed of 10 rooms arranged on three floors, a garden and a courtyard. While visiting the museum the guests find out many details and particularities of a typical way of life during Deledda's times as well as seeing many of her personal belongings like books, manuscripts, furnishings, etc. The Kitchen has been furnished according to the descriptions we can find in the Deledda's autobiographic novel Cosima. After marriage she moved to Rome, but never stopped writing about Sardinia and she furnished her studio in Rome with the furnishings ordered to Sardinian artisans. In the museum there is also a description of Deledda's contemporary local artists and writers like Francesco Ciusa, Antonio Ballero, Sebastiano Satta or Priamo Galissay.

The second interesting stop is in Orgosolo. This village is famous for the typical street art,  here called murales, that have been painted on many houses and whose meanings have to do with world protests and unfairness. Stop and walk along the main street to take some pictures at leisure. The last stop is for a typical lunch with ancient recipes : 2 kinds of cheese, raw ham, sausage, 2 kinds of bread, boiled sheep and roasted suckling piglet. When the weather is nice the lunch is served outdoor under the trees.