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Day 0 - Arrival

Touch down in Olbia. Transfer to La Sciumara Resort in Palau, our home on the granite coast. Welcome drink. Dinner by the water. The adventure begins tomorrow.

 

Day 1 - The Harvest

Hand-pick olives in an ancient grove as morning light cuts through silver leaves. Then into the forest with baskets to forage for porcini. Lunch at the home of our hosts- think new oil, the mushrooms we gathered, autumn vegetables, homemade pasta, wine. In the afternoon, a private wine tasting at Siddura, one of Gallura's most beautiful wineries.

 

Day 2 - The Wild Coast

A full day on the water and stone. We ferry to Caprera, the wildest of the La Maddalena islands, and hike to Cala Napoletana - a hidden cove of impossible turquoise framed by granite boulder, where we enjoy a picnic lunch on the beach. Swim if you're brave. Return at dusk.

 

Day 3 - The Threshold

We leave the coast. At a frantoio (olive oil mill) in Berchidda we press the olives we harvested into our own oil, bottling and labelling it to take home. Lunch at Maman Ludi, a fine dining restaurant that elevates Sardinian cuisine with precision and soul. Then the road climbs east. The mountains close in. We arrive at La Croisette Farm, our private home in the Barbagia for the next five nights.

 

Day 4 - The Crafts

In Nuoro we learn Su Filindeu - the rarest pasta on earth -from one of the few people who still holds the knowledge. You will stretch semolina dough into 256 impossibly thin threads. It is frustrating, meditative, and profound. Then we eat what we made. In the afternoon, we drive to Ottana to paint traditional Caratzas masks with a master artisan. Evening at Greg Pizza, a local institution.

 

Day 5 - The Shepherds

A full day in the wild. Off-road vehicles take us to Lake Cedrino. We canoe across still water, past volcanic columns and herons, to the source of Su Gologone, Sardinia's largest karst spring. Then into the Lanaitho Valley to eat with shepherds: salumi, fresh ricotta, roast suckling pig, cannonau, prepared over open flame and served in the open air.

 

Day 6 - The Underworld

We explore the magnificent cave- Grotta di Ispinigoli, home to one of Europe's largest stalactites, that resembles the cave from Aladdin. Lunch at Ristorante Ispinigoli, then a visit to Parco Museo S'Abba Frisca, an ethnographic park of water, gardens, and Sardinian rural life. In the afternoon, a master goldsmith teaches us the secrets of Sardinian filigree jewelry. Each guest makes a silver ring to take home. We watch pane carasau being made the traditional way and taste it warm from the fire.

 

Day 7 - The Feast of the Dead

Cortes Apertas. The open courtyards of the Barbagia annual festival. All day we wander a mountain village where every stone doorway is a tasting station-  culurgiones, roast chestnuts, cannonau, and the deep polyphonic singing of canto a tenore, with traditional dances. As evening falls, Sardinia marks Is Animeddas. Bonfires. Candles. The veil between worlds grows thin. We return to La Croisette for our final night.

 

Day 8 - Departure

Breakfast. A last walk through the grounds. Transfer to Olbia.