The best hill towns in the province of Nuoro
The province of Nuoro is the mountain half of Sardinia, where villages sit on ground too steep to build outwards and so build upwards instead, in granite, schist and pale limestone. The Barbagia smells of woodsmoke and roasting pork for much of the winter, and of helichrysum and cistus on the slopes once the heat arrives. This is Cannonau country, dark red wine drunk young with pane carasau, fresh pecorino and culurgiones folded like wheat ears. Autumn is the best season inland, when the chestnut and holm oak woods turn and the village courtyards open for the harvest weekends.
Most people who fly into Olbia turn straight for the coast, and the Costa Smeralda absorbs them: marina berths, gated resorts, beach clubs and traffic queues along the road to Porto Cervo in August. The beaches genuinely are extraordinary, which is why the crowd exists and why prices in July and August behave the way they do. The pattern is well established, and it keeps almost everyone within sight of the water.
The mountains behind that coast go on for a long way, and they are where the shepherding, the wine and the older stone architecture actually live. Fewer people drive up into the Gennargentu, the Supramonte or the limestone walls above Ogliastra, even though the roads are good and the walking is some of the best in Italy. The towns below sit on those slopes, each one built on a gradient, within reach of gorges, nuraghi, murals and vineyards. They are worth a detour, and several are worth a base for a week.
Of the 16 communes we have mapped in the province of Nuoro, 8 qualify as hill towns: each is an inland hill settlement built on ground too steep to spread. The smallest, Atzara, has 999 residents.
If you are still choosing, we have also written The best wine towns in the province of Nuoro and The 10 best hidden wine towns in Sardegna.
Atzara
Why visit Atzara
The Mandrolisai sub-region sits at the geographic centre of Sardinia, and Atzara occupies its western edge on the slopes that rise toward the Gennargentu, with the boundary of the national park running close to the eastern side of the commune. The village built its name first on wine: the volume and quality of the Mandrolisai blend was already established in the nineteenth century, before any painter arrived.
What changed at the turn of the twentieth century was who was looking at the place. Visiting artists found in the stone houses and the lanes of dark basalt and granite a ready subject for peasant scenes, and the school that grew out of their stay took the village's name.
The wine economy and the painting school are not separate stories so much as two outputs of the same setting: a farming village at altitude, built of local stone, whose ordinary life became the material for a documented artistic movement. What the town has kept, in its museum, its unchanged centro storico and its parish church, is the physical record of both.
What to see in Atzara
- Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Antonio Ortiz Echagüe. Civic museum holding works by the Spanish costumbristas and the Sardinian painters of the Scuola di Atzara, including Antonio Ballero and Filippo Figari.
- Centro storico di Atzara. Stone houses of dark basalt and granite along narrow lanes, the model the painters used at the start of the twentieth century.
- Chiesa di Sant'Antioco Martire. Parish church in the heart of the village, built in Aragonese-Catalan late Gothic style with later modifications.
How to get to Atzara
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Cagliari is roughly 103 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the dry, mild months at 553 metres, the right season for Mandrolisai cellar visits and walks toward the Gennargentu. July and August touch thirty degrees in the village and the vineyards switch to early-morning work. Winter is cold and quiet, with snow possible on the peaks above. I giorni del Mandrolisai falls in June.
Ulassai
Why visit Ulassai
Ulassai sits on a ledge beneath the Tacchi d'Ogliastra, the limestone buttes that rise like broken teeth above the inland Ogliastra. Su Marmuri opens in the rock outside the village, and the Lequarci waterfalls drop off the Tacchi when winter rains fill them, dry again by summer.
The village itself is compact, its upper quarter built around the parish church, its lower streets running toward the old railway line that once connected Ogliastra to the coast and now ends at the station turned museum. Population has been declining here for decades, a pattern common across the inland villages of the subregion.
What keeps Ulassai distinct is the work Maria Lai made of it: a village small enough that one artist's ribbon could reach every house and still climb the mountain above it.
What to see in Ulassai
- Stazione dell'Arte. Former railway station converted in 2006 into a museum holding 140 works by Maria Lai, housed in the platform building where trains once ran.
- Grotta di Su Marmuri. A single chamber deep enough to swallow the light within a few steps of the entrance, reached by guided tour into the limestone.
- Cascate Lequarci. A 100-meter waterfall on the Tacchi cliffs above the village, active after winter rains and usually dry by midsummer.
How to get to Ulassai
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Cagliari is roughly 106 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June is the green window: the Lequarci waterfall runs, the Tacchi turn pale gold at sunset, and the trails are walkable without heat. September through November is the second window, drier and quieter, with cooler nights at 775 meters. Summer pushes thirty degrees on the lower slopes; the village stays cooler than the coast but the waterfall dries up by July.
Bolotana
Why visit Bolotana
Bolotana sits at 472 meters on a hill between the Marghine range and the middle valley of the Tirso, fifty-five kilometers from Sassari and thirty from Nuoro. The municipal territory runs from 1,200 meters at Punta Palai down to 144 meters in the valley below.
Above the village, the Badde Salighes forest holds Villa Piercy, the rural residence Benjamin Piercy built between 1879 and 1882. Piercy was the Welsh engineer who designed Sardegna's railway network from 1863 onward.
He turned a thousand hectares here into the largest livestock operation in the Mediterranean and laid out a four-hectare garden with native maples and oaks alongside Himalayan thuja, Spanish fir, and Lawson cypress. The villa, with four corner towers under metal domes, reopened to visits after a 2010 restoration.
The pre-Nuragic ritual circles of Ortachis sit higher on the mountain at 1,000 meters. The weaving tradition, yellow, black, and red geometric carpets on horizontal looms, made Bolotana one of the principal producers of Sardinian rugs.
What to see in Bolotana
- Villa Piercy. 1879-82 rural residence of Welsh railway engineer Benjamin Piercy in the Badde Salighes forest, with four hectares of garden mixing native and exotic species.
- Foresta di Badde Salighes. Mountain forest above the village holding Villa Piercy and walking trails toward Punta Palai at 1,200 meters.
- Circoli rituali di Ortachis. Pre-Nuragic ritual circles and standing stones from the Neolithic period, at around 1,000 meters on the mountain.
How to get to Bolotana
There is a railway station in the town, so you can arrive without a car and never need one while you are here. Sassari is roughly 92 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the months for the Marghine. Walking the Badde Salighes forest and the trail to Punta Palai is best in spring or autumn, when the temperature stays under twenty-five degrees and the Tirso valley below is still green. July and August touch thirty-five degrees in the valley, though the higher woods around Villa Piercy stay cooler.
Mamoiada
Why visit Mamoiada
Mamoiada sits at 644 meters in the Barbagia di Ollolai, fifteen kilometers south of Nuoro on a granite plateau under the Gennargentu. The village is known for two things.
The first is the Mamuthones, masked figures who walk in two parallel lines through the streets on the feast of Sant'Antonio Abate on January 17 and on the Sunday and Tuesday of Carnival. Each Mamuthone wears a black carved wooden mask, a heavy sheepskin and roughly thirty kilos of cowbells on his back, escorted by the Issohadores in white masks who lasso onlookers from the crowd.
The Museo delle Maschere Mediterranee, opened in 2001, sets the rite in a comparative Mediterranean frame. The second thing is Cannonau.
Mamoiada's granite hills produce some of the highest-rated Cannonau in Sardinia, with a handful of small estates working old bush-trained vines at altitude.
What to see in Mamoiada
- Museo delle Maschere Mediterranee. Museum opened in 2001 documenting the Mamuthones and Issohadores alongside masked carnival traditions across the Mediterranean basin.
- Carnevale di Mamoiada. Annual masked procession on January 17 and Carnival Sunday and Tuesday, with Mamuthones in black sheepskins and Issohadores in white masks.
- Cannonau di Mamoiada. Roughly 30 small estates producing Cannonau on granite slopes between 500 and 800 meters, several with cellar visits by appointment.
How to get to Mamoiada
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Sassari is roughly 123 minutes away by road.
Our tip
January 17 is the calendar event. The Mamuthones walk that night and then again on Carnival Sunday and Tuesday, usually in early February. April through June and September through November are the comfortable months at 644 meters: cool nights, walkable trails, vineyard visits at the small Cannonau estates.
Jerzu
Why visit Jerzu
Jerzu sits on the eastern flank of the Ogliastra interior, the village gathered below the limestone wall of Monte Corongiu. The name first appears in a document from 1130 recording a donation of vineyards, and by the 16th century the wine was being shipped across the Alps.
The mountain itself carries a longer history than the village at its foot: a Punic necropolis is cut into its lower slopes, predating the medieval settlement below by centuries. The town's life still runs between these two poles, the vineyards on the lower ground and the mountain rising behind them.
The Antichi Poderi Jerzu cooperative vinifies most of the local crop, and the Sagra del Vino on the first Sunday of August brings carts and traditional dress into the streets, with the parish church at the center of the processions. Jerzu reads as a village organized around a single crop and a single peak, its wine trade and its landscape sharing the same slopes for centuries.
What to see in Jerzu
- Monte Corongiu. Marked footpaths climb the limestone butte above the village, passing a Punic necropolis on the lower slopes before reaching the summit views.
- Cantina Antichi Poderi Jerzu. Cooperative winery grouping roughly 350 Cannonau growers, the largest producer of Jerzu sub-zone wine.
- Chiesa di Sant'Erasmo. Parish church of the village, the focal point of the August feast of Sant'Antonio and the wine festival processions.
How to get to Jerzu
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Cagliari is roughly 180 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June is the best window: vineyards in leaf, mild temperatures at 450 meters, and trails on Monte Corongiu open without summer heat. September through November is the second window, lining up with the Cannonau harvest in late September and the cooler autumn light. Summer touches the mid-thirties and the village empties between two and six in the afternoon. Sagra del Vino a Jerzu falls in August.
Baunei
Why visit Baunei
Baunei sits on the southern flank of the Supramonte, the village on its ridge and its coast forty kilometers below, a stretch reachable only by boat or on foot and belonging entirely to the commune. Santa Maria Navarrese is the only seaside frazione, a small bay with a Romanesque church that serves as harbor for boat trips along the gulf.
Inland and above, the limestone plateau carries free-grazing goats, a deep karst sinkhole, and the chapel of San Pietro, a different register of the same terrain that drops to cliffs at the shore. The coast itself is a sequence: a cove of polished white pebbles a few points north of the arch beach, the needle marking the southern end near Santa Maria Navarrese, and another cove further along, the two points bracketing the long trekking route sketched in 1987 by photographer Mario Verin and alpinist Peppino Cicalò.
The territory falls inside the Parco Nazionale del Golfo di Orosei e del Gennargentu. What holds the village, plateau, and coast together is the same limestone, worked by the sea into coves and arches below and by karst into a sinkhole and plateau above.
What to see in Baunei
- Cala Goloritzé. White pebble beach under the arch, reachable only by boat or on foot, the shoreline it sits on regularly ranked among Italy's top ten.
- Cala Mariolu. Cove of small white pebbles and turquoise water north of Goloritzé, reached by boat from Santa Maria Navarrese or Cala Gonone.
- Pedra Longa. 128-metre limestone needle rising from the sea above Santa Maria Navarrese, the south marker of the Baunei coast.
How to get to Baunei
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Cagliari is roughly 188 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November is the window for Baunei. The Selvaggio Blu opens in late April and effectively closes by mid-October; July and August are too hot for the cliffs, with no water along most of the route and temperatures above thirty-five degrees in the gorges. Cala Goloritzé and Mariolu run on a daily visitor cap from May through October, and the boat operators from Santa Maria Navarrese sell out by early morning in August.
Oliena
Why visit Oliena
Oliena sits at 380 metres on the western flank of the massif, in the interior of the Nuoro province. The village is the main inhabited base for one of the wildest karst landscapes in Italy: the Lanaitto valley below the town conceals the collapsed doline that hides the Tiscali village, and the caves of Sa Oche and Su Bentu, whose river runs for one of the longest stretches underground of any in Italy.
Monte Corrasi stands over all of it, the high point of the Supramonte, with the spring rising at the foot of a neighbouring peak just east of the centre. Olive groves and almond orchards fill the valley below the cliffs, and the Cannonau grown on these slopes becomes the Nepente di Oliena, the wine D'Annunzio named for Olympus.
The village belongs to the Parco Nazionale del Gennargentu zone and holds the Bandiera Arancione of the Touring Club Italiano. What holds the place together is the relation between the heights and the valley floor: a limestone wall that produces caves, a hidden village and a river underground, and beneath it a strip of cultivated ground that has made the wine and the oil while the mountain keeps the rest concealed.
What to see in Oliena
- Monte Corrasi. The peak rises directly above the village, a long climb from town and the dominant presence on the skyline in every direction.
- Su Gologone. The spring sits at the foot of Monte Uddè, its water surfacing already emerald-green rather than gathering colour downstream.
- Villaggio nuragico di Tiscali. Bronze Age village of circular huts hidden inside a collapsed karstic doline on Monte Tiscali, reached on foot through the Lanaitto valley.
How to get to Oliena
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Sassari is roughly 138 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the working months: dry warmth on the cliff face, water still in the Gologone, hiking conditions for Tiscali and the Lanaitto valley. July and August push past thirty-five degrees on the lower slopes and most serious walkers leave the Supramonte alone between eleven and four. Winter is quiet, with snow possible above 1,200 metres on Corrasi and the village turning to its olive harvest in November.
Dorgali
Why visit Dorgali
Dorgali sits on the seaward side of the Supramonte, ten kilometers from the coast, its municipal territory covering 225 square kilometers, one of the largest in the province of Nuoro. The coastal frazione holds a thousand residents in winter and fifteen thousand in August, facing the Gulf of Orosei from a small bay reached by a tunnel through the limestone.
North of the town, a sinkhole opens into the massif, the ground beneath it inhabited across centuries before the first millennium BC. South of the town, a river has cut through the same limestone to leave one of the deepest canyons in Europe, its walls holding a plant found nowhere else.
The Cantina Sociale di Dorgali, founded in 1953, vinifies 90 percent of its production from Cannonau across 550 hectares of vineyards in the surrounding communes. The whole territory lies inside the Parco Nazionale del Golfo di Orosei e del Gennargentu.
What connects the coast, the sinkhole, and the gorge is the same limestone mass, worn by water into a cave dwelling in one place and a canyon in another, with the town itself set at the point where the massif starts its descent to the sea.
What to see in Dorgali
- Villaggio nuragico di Tiscali. Bronze Age village at 518 metres, reached by two hours of hiking through Supramonte limestone before the sinkhole opens underfoot.
- Gola di Su Gorropu. Walls rising sheer from the canyon floor, among the deepest gorges in Europe, the gorge narrow enough that daylight reaches the bottom for only part of the day.
- Cala Gonone. Coastal frazione of Dorgali on the Gulf of Orosei, ten kilometers from the town, the harbor for boat access to the wild beaches south.
How to get to Dorgali
There is no station we could confirm here, so this one means driving. Sassari is roughly 156 minutes away by road.
Our tip
April through June and September through November are the months for Dorgali. The Tiscali hike and Su Gorropu canyon need cool air; mid-July to mid-August on the Supramonte routinely passes thirty-five degrees and the trails close to organized groups. Cala Gonone is the inverse: May through October is the boat season for the Gulf of Orosei coves, and the Cala Luna ferries run on a fixed schedule.
