September 8-9, 2018 in Oliena, Sardinia and September 15-16, 2018 in Dorgali, Sardinia
Autunno in Barbagia, or as translated in English ‘Fall in Barbagia’, is a series of weekend festivals celebrating and showcasing Sardinian heritage, handicraft and traditional local cuisine held throughout the territory called Barbagia. This interior part of the island offers beautiful rugged mountain peaks, lush valleys, historic towns, delicious local food with kind and generous people. We went to 2 of these amazing festivals in Oliena and Dorgali and they were the best experience.
Oliena offered us a glimpse into living in a smaller mountain town, although that weekend it was packed. We walked to the festival from our hotel and as we approached the old part of town the streets were closed to cars and people were everywhere. In fact it was so packed that it was hard to walk in some of the narrow streets. Booths were scattered alongside the road selling food and some of the historical buildings had their doors open welcoming the public to go in. Inside these you could taste wine, cheese, or cured meat or watch women sewing or view paintings made by people living in the area. As we walked a few boys riding donkeys passed us, we tried some local red wine a man was handing out while he was standing in the middle of the road, sampled some delicious olive oil, shared a meal of homemade ravioli followed by green grapes and seadas. Seadas is a yummy traditional Sardinian dessert that is a crisp, deep fried pastry filled with lemony, oozing cheese and soaked in warm honey. We caught the beginning of a small parade with women and children wearing traditional clothing and a group of drummers strumming and dancing as they walked. With all of the action the baby was eager to run so we went to the center square where they were playing traditional music with people dancing and let him run on the grass next to it with other kids.
Dorgali
Dorgali was a larger mountain town and just as charming as Oliena. Similar to Oliena, we walked to the festival from our hotel and the streets of the old town were closed to cars and filled with people, vendors selling food and historic buildings open. We found beautiful hand made knives built using local material, a little girl making pasta, locally made wooden furniture meticulously carved, leather products like purses or bridals for horses, and of course cheese, wine and cured meat. We sampled a few delectable different wines from Cantina Dorgali while listening to a couple of boys play accordions and a little girl was crushing grapes inside a barrel.
As we walked, we found a public fountain that the baby loved to play in and watched a small parade of people riding horses and little kids wearing traditional clothing. We sat down for dinner at a pizza restaurant and shared a large table with another group of people. With our broken Italian and their limited English we had great conversation leveraging the use of a phone translator, shared our 2 euro bottle of wine with them and they shared their pizza with us. A friend with them kept bringing out so much pizza, we were laughing and saying ‘mangia, mangia’ and that we all start diets on Monday. The people were so friendly and welcoming everywhere.
These 2 festivals provided us with the opportunity to experience true Sardinian life and enjoy the beauty of the mountains. I am so happy we were able to go and encourage others that visit Sardinia in the fall to make it a priority to attend one during their stay.