An app to live new autumn experiences

The “Sardegna, Il Cuore” app is a new free platform that invites you to explore Sardinia with a selection of events, activities and experiences until December 2024. Promoting the historic regions of Barbagie, Sarcidano, Barigadu and Guilcer, the app enhances sustainable tourism and the lesser-known beauties of the hinterland, with proposals that range from nature to local culture, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the heart of the Island, discovering places, traditions and identity flavors.

Unique experiences, a journey through the history, nature and traditions of an often mistreated, but equally fascinating Sardinia. This is what “Sardegna, Il Cuore” offers, an innovative territorial app launched by the local action groups (GAL) of the region that brings together a vast selection of events and activities that will take place until December 2024, promoting the historic regions of Barbagie, Sarcidano, Barigadu and Guilcer and offering those who want to not only travel through but also get to know these places, an immersion in the heart of the Island.

The idea is to make known the small hidden gems in central Sardinia, suggesting – also thanks to the support of artificial intelligence – excellent food and wine productions, immersive nature trails, experiences and events to rediscover the peculiarities of the territories, often little known even within the Island itself. From Atzara to Lake Omodeo to Laconi: with a selection – completely partial – proposed by the app of things to do and corners of the historic “Barbagie” to visit, “Sardegna, Il Cuore” becomes an ode to an Island with which the cognitive dialogue has no end.

A PROJECT THAT LOOKS AT SUSTAINABILITY

The application is the result of the work started by the homonymous project “Sardegna, Il Cuore”, an initiative that aims to promote sustainable tourism in the internal regions of Sardinia. Funded by Sardegna Ricerche as part of Line A of the complex Tourism Project, it was created to promote a tourism approach that respects and enhances local natural and cultural resources, involving the communities and businesses of the area. Central to the project is also the Charter for sustainable tourism, which defines quality standards for hospitality and the offer linked to experiential tourism, guaranteeing environmental sustainability and attention to local heritage.

A Charter that is also the result of a participatory process – the document was born from 94 territorial meetings and over 100 stakeholders – involving public administrations, tourism operators and local organizations, with the aim of promoting quality tourism based on respect for nature but also for the island culture without commodification and beyond the mainstream narratives that often accompany visits to the Island. In this context, the “Sardegna, Il Cuore” app becomes a facilitator in the discovery of events and places that are often less known, promoting slow and authentic experiences, such as participation in the grape harvest, immersions in nature or visits to archaeological sites.

HOW THE APPLICATION WORKS

Exploring Austis by bike, getting to know the tradition of sound forgers in Tonara that has lasted for four generations, that of Campanacci Floris, listening to the tenor of Orosei at sunset in the natural site of Sa Crabarissa: in the application, Sardinia reveals its most unique and often unpublished side, encouraging exploration. After downloading to the platform, you can orient yourself among the “things to do” through a map, a calendar of activities that suggests events on the chosen dates or by taking a look at the opportunities according to the preferred category: art and culture, local productions, accommodation and catering, villages, nature and finally, architecture and history.

And if autumn is the perfect time for a deep immersion in nature, in this area the application has a lot to recommend. Some examples? Autumn foliage in the Barbagia di Belvì among the centuries-old chestnut and hazelnut groves, on 26 and 27 October with the Chestnut Festival. During the event, you can undertake a series of fascinating experiences between the Ecomuseum of the Sardinian mountains, the historic Devilla house, the Antonio Mura Museum and the evocative 16th-century Spanish prisons Sa Bovida, accompanied by guides; in the prisons of Sa Bovida, women accused of witchcraft were tried. A journey into the enigmatic past of the Inquisition period in Sardinia, but not only.

Explore Austis by bike, learn about the tradition of sound forgers in Tonara that has lasted for four generations, listen to the tenor of Orosei at sunset…

EXPERIENCES TO LIVE

Moving to the Barbagia del Barigadu, among the wonders to discover stand out the nuraghe Losa, one of the most important and best preserved nuraghes in all of Sardinia, and the well temple of Santa Cristina in Paulilatino, an architectural masterpiece of the Nuragic civilization dating back to about 3000 years ago. From the Sas Olias recreational point in Sedilo or from the Sa Tanchitta farmhouse in Ula Tirso, visitors can organize horseback rides or excursions along the Tirso river and Lake Omodeo.

The latter, formed by the damming of the river by the Santa Chiara dam and subsequently replaced