The Barbagia: the Sardinia of shepherds, masks and stone.

What is the Barbagia?

It's the mountainous heart of Sardinia, around Nuoro and the Gennargentu: shepherd villages on the slopes, granite and limestone ranges, holm oak woods and very little coast. Today it's the Sardinia that doesn't appear in the photos of coves: that of pecorino, Cannonau, spit-roast suckling pig and a carnival of masks unlike any other.

This page brings together four villages that can be visited together, less than 40 minutes from each other:

• Orgosolo, the village of the murals: about 150 paintings of protest and pastoral life on its façades.
• Mamoiada, home of the mamuthones, with the Museo delle Maschere Mediterranee and, every 16 January, the bonfires of Sant'Antonio.
• Oliena, at the foot of Monte Corrasi and the Supramonte, with the Su Gologone spring and the climb to Tiscali, the nuragic village hidden inside a mountain.
• Fonni, at about 1,000 metres the highest village in Sardinia, gateway to Bruncu Spina and the Gennargentu ridge.

The Barbagia touches the sea to the east: the Gola di Gorropu, Cala Gonone and the coves with no road are in the Gulf of Orosei, about 40 minutes from Oliena (estimated). The two areas combine very well in a week.

How do you get there from Spain?

By plane. Olbia (OLB) has a direct flight from Barcelona and is the shortest arrival: from there to Oliena it's a little over an hour and a half by car, and to Orgosolo or Fonni about two hours (estimated). Cagliari (CAG) has direct flights from Barcelona and Seville; from Cagliari, Fonni is about two and a half hours away and Oliena almost three. Alghero has no direct flight from Spain. By ferry, Grimaldi Lines links Barcelona with Porto Torres, a little over two hours from Nuoro (estimated).

Hire a car at the airport: in the Barbagia there's no other practical way to get from village to village, and the mountain roads are slow.

Where to stay?

Choose according to where you enter. If you arrive at Olbia, sleep in Oliena: at Su Gologone, the hotel that began as a restaurant in 1967, next to the spring, or at the Agriturismo Guthiddai, a family country house at the foot of the Corrasi. If you arrive at Cagliari or want the mountains, in Fonni, at the Hotel Cualbu, with a pool and sauna. With two nights, do one on each side.

For eating, the fireplace-roasted suckling pig at the Su Gologone restaurant, the Barbagia menu with published prices at Monte Maccione, above Oliena, or the €22 and €23 menus with wine at Il Portico, in Orgosolo.

What to do?

A day of villages. In the morning, the masks museum in Mamoiada; at midday, the murals and lunch in Orgosolo; in the afternoon, a Cannonau tasting at the village's small growers' winery. It's the masks, murals and Cannonau plan.

A day in the Supramonte. Climb to Tiscali, on your own or with the Cooperativa Enis from Oliena, lunch at Su Gologone and an afternoon at the spring: the Tiscali and Su Gologone plan.

Two nights. Fonni and the Gennargentu on the first day, Mamoiada and Orgosolo on the second, Tiscali and Su Gologone on the third: the two-night getaway.

When to go?

Spring and autumn are the best time for walking: from April to June and in September and October the climbs to Tiscali and the Gennargentu are done without the heat. In autumn, too, the villages open their courtyards with Autunno in Barbagia, and Orgosolo holds Gustos e Nuscos in mid-October. 16 January is Mamoiada's day: bonfires and the first outing of the mamuthones; they return at carnival. July and August are hot inland, though the nights cool. In winter it snows at Fonni and Bruncu Spina.