Visit prestigious master traditional shepherd’s knife makers. They sell even to Japan!
Learn the right ‘pinch’ to close the local panada’s so beautifully. And eat them, of course.
Enjoy strictly local specialties also in this beautiful 14th Century mansion.
Admire a local top chef at work, making his elaborations of traditional dishes.
Rich simplicity that will surprise and inspire.
Also appetizers you don’t know, so simple that you will make them yourself too.
Found only in the restaurant we visit as well.
Poems are read here, connected to family stories, in between courses from a ‘literary’ menu!
Ceremonial shawls, embroidery of papal level, signs of a rich heritage of great beauty.
Incredible master builders also in deep pre-Roman prehistory!
Beautiful private homes and locations too; and in case you consider buying, we have advice.
Ancient prehistorical temples that should be world-famous.
Even spoilt Italians call Sardinian coasts ’the Maldives of the Mediterranean’.
Nature’s freshness and beauty, in between impressive human beauty.
Program
- DAY 1: On your eight-day full immersion journey into beautiful Sardinia you will start in Olbia. Would you like to spend a day here in this city before our week starts? We can give tips on how to move around and where to go. At the airport you’ll meet up with the rest of the group and we will head out in a 9-seat van and extra car to the first destination: an agriturismo (homestead) that is idyllically set between granite rock formations. In the morning the sunrise over the lake – only a stroll away – will be awe inspiring indeed. A hidden natural pearl, this combination of rocks and lake and sun! This agriturismo serves only fresh local food. Women are in charge here, and one of them teaches you how to pinch-close the local specialty by hand. The father likes to come in and sing, for instance a Sardinian love song that touches the heart of every Sardinian, and probably also yours. So much pureness from the heart this entire week!
- DAY 2: After the delicious breakfast we will visit one of Sardinia’s biggest mysteries: a prehistoric “altar” made of crystal rich rock. A most healthy place for a lunch picnic of local delicacies. Around that corner is a stone formation that ‘is’ a giant cobra head. An inspiring place. We sleep outside the village of Bitti, to enjoy an agriturismo that serves only food from their land. In Bitti we will learn about its famous “Canto a Tenore”, a singing modality recognized by UNESCO. Sleeping in our comfortable rooms in the farmhouse we will be guarded by the beautiful bright stars in the darkest of skies of Sardinia. In the morning warm milk fresh from the cow after a nice walk greeting the animals who provided your breakfast make you understand why these people become healthy centenarians.
- DAY 3: After a farm-produce breakfast we will set off to the village of Oliena, where we will sleep in a mountain hotel with a fantastic view over the valley. This is the village of the master embroiderers, papal level, and of course we will visit their workshop where you can see their top-level art.
Dinner will be in a fabulous home restaurant of a couple that was forced to close their successful fourty year old restaurant – after Covid – and chose to convert their stables into a beautiful warm dining room, serving a menu made by hand using recipes coming from a Nobel winning literature source from over a century ago. Expect poems read by the owner in between the courses. And the wine is famous for not getting us drunk or leaving us hungover made by locals of each village we visit, surprisingly.
- DAY 4: After breakfast, we will set off for the hospitable and once ‘invincible’ mountainous area that the Romans called Barbagia. (‘Those Barbarians. Wouldn’t let themselves be romanized!’) The wild heart of Sardinia… We visit the village nearby, a bastion for Freedom Fighters internationally, you will see the colourful and often iconic mural paintings in the village honoring these freedom fighters. Then we will settle in for another gourmet picnic featuring the local cheeses, meats, and vegetables these centenarians enjoy next to a breathtaking lake! A majestic place for a picnic!
Dinner will be in a family run farm that will cook specially for us, led by La Nonna, the grandmother. The road to this agriturismo in 5 minutes already took us much deeper Into the Sardinian Wild than you would expect, and now you will feel immersed in Sardinian authenticity and hospitality. We sleep that night in the village, in an agriturismo right in the idyllic center of town. If the internationally famous women choir is practicing, we will go and hear their ethereal singing.
- DAY 5: After breakfast we will head for the west coast, where we will visit the picturesque village of Santu Lussurgiu. Here you will enjoy a full local produce dinner in a historic centuries-old mansion, located down hidden alleys. The local food, the ambiance… The romantic glow of streetlights makes the walk back home after dinner magical and meditative.
On our way to this beautiful entourage our lunch picnic of local cheeses, breads olives, meats and vegetables will have been under an impressive cork oak next to a superb prehistoric stone tower complex, three millennia old at least. Sardinia has many surprising remnants of inspiring grandness, still not explained properly, as you will have seen throughout the week. We will stay two nights here in this village, where we will also see & perhaps buy the beautiful Sardinian shepherd’s knives.
- DAY 6: At breakfast this time we might do as the locals do, with some additions: both “al bar”, at the local café, and in the picturesque green park, enjoying the amazing richness of local ‘Lourdes-class’ spring water, before just two villages away we will meet a Sardinian master musician and witch doctor and liquor maker: he will present and play traditional and invented instruments of the region, and he will invite us to sample his own medicinal elixirs and potions. On the background his lovely wife – we have been invited in their private home full of self made art – is preparing some delicious things to taste. In his beautiful home and garden you will have already felt transported to a simpler magical place and time, and now their personality and hospitality will enrich our visit even more.
Tonight we will dine in a farmstead in the so-called Iron Hills, on a breathtaking ranch, run by a family where they cook only their local produce and meat. The local olive oil, the seasonal products, the natural environment…. Not the standard touristical restaurant at all, and still only 10 miles from the sea. Here you taste the freshness and proudness, and as we stroll back to the car after our meal you will be in awe at a spectacular night sky filled with more stars than you can imagine in the middle of this unspoiled land. All this is within the quaint village of Santu Lussurgiu, surrounded by lush green hills, with the perfect water to make the products of the local traditional distillery of extra high quality.
- DAY 7: Today we will head to the fish village of Cabras, also visiting the famous quartz crystal beaches with sand of sparkling white crystal spheres, the best place for a lunch picnic indeed! We are also in the village of the mysterious giant’s statues from prehistory here! Do share your spontaneous insights about them with us, for no-one has a clue why they were built, really!
Tonight we will dine in the fish agriturismo of a local fisherman’s cooperative, experiencing their way to preparing fish. You will see the old laguna and structures that once were used to catch the fish. We sleep in a cute hotel in Cabras, with apartments along an alley, just like Locals Restaurant in Fairhope.
- DAY 8: Early rise and transfer to Olbia, where later that day you will have your flight, if you haven’t decided to stay a little longer. The rest of your Europe trip awaits? Depending on flights departures, during the transfer we will surely stop at yet another inspiring site on this beautiful island that the Italians refer to as the Isola Mito, the Island of Myths. By now you understand why.
ASHLEY GRAY TAKES YOU ALONG THE HIDDEN LOCAL CUISINE OF SARDINIA, ITALY
Imagine eight days exploring hand-picked local Sardinian culinary hotspots as well as visiting a selection of Sardinian master workers. You will also embrace and understand the principles of the Sardinian Blue Zone, famous for the healthy longevity of its inhabitants. With more confidence you will consider to bring these principles back to your own life. so you too can live long and prosper with a healthy body and mind. These eight days, around seven nights, will be such an unforgettable combination of savoring richness, beauty, confidence, connection, wonder, mistery, energy, amidst stunning nature!We will be like a group of old friends on a beautiful adventure, with the group size kept small also to be flexible for changes, with attention for the group’s energy. You will also enjoy non-touristic high level cultural expressions that make this Island of Myths so special indeed. This is not the usual tourist tour.
Does this resonate with you too? Do join us on this adventure with a small group of like-minded people, all with their hearts wide open. Start looking forward to a unique experience of being in Sardinia immersed in beautiful landscape, culture and sacred sites, and rich culinary tradition. We are delighted to have you join us!
TO ALSO LOOK FORWARD TOO
Your hosts will be Ashley Gray and Samuele Pitzalis. Ashley is a restaurant owner in Fairhope, Alabama: Locals. She joined a retreat week led by Samuele in September 2024 and fell in love with Sardinia’s energy and food too. Two weeks after the retreat she came back to Sardinia, personally trying and selecting the venues that we will visit. She works together with Samuele, official tour operator on Sardinia, now in love with Alabama too.
Here during dinner poems – translated! – will be read at a long family table with people from Sardinia and/or all over the world.
One of the restaurants is hidden high in the hills, the vegetables are strictly local, the pasta as fresh as can be, the ladies in the kitchen experts on rich simplicity: flavors, traditions, own farm produce, fantastic views, far away from mankind, amongst kind people indeed. It’s a camp site, but oh no, very far from the standard one, as you will see and remember for the rest of your life.
One of the best hidden agriturismo’s that you will ever experience, offering an abundance of local dishes straight from the still operative farm, only 30 feet away. After our delicious dinner we here we walk back to our rooms through the sound of sheep bells and cow bells, saying good night on the way to cute dogs, enjoying the hospitality of hard working farmers that offer the best quality Farm to Table indeed.
Sardinia’s variety and density of sacred sites is unique in the world. Many believe the island, in its ancient past, to have been a place of “spiritual wellness”, regardless of what present day archaeologists declare. Not coincidentally Sardinia is also the cradle of the Blue Zone philosophy, which details the lifestyle attributed to the high number of healthy centenarians. There are nine key lifestyle factors that we illustrate and – depending on your openness to it – can experience for ourselves on the tour.
We will be standing and listening in awe at the master musician that will also demonstrate the traditional three-cane instrument Launeddas, with its multi-tone sound. This type of instrument has been used since 4000 years ago at least and is unique to Sardinia. Raymondo will also demonstrate several peculiar musical inventions, and he is also the medicine man of the village, making potions and liquors and wine and olive oil from local herbs and fruits. This will be such a heart and soul warming visit!
All meals are included in this tour: breakfast, lunch and dinner, from healthy picnics to only local farmstead restaurants. The meals are prepared with locally sourced organic produce with rich mineral content. Sardinia is an ancient volcanic island, the volcanic lava and ash deposits have enriched the soil with nutrients and minerals, making it fertile for agriculture. And the recipes? Tested, refined, for generations.
Also in the evenings we will see stunning beauty.
Imagine visiting such a ceremonial entrance hall and several caverns deeper into the rock? The hall has great acoustics and the prehistoric carvings are simply rich in their symbolism. Come experience many such sites with powerful energy on our tour! Sure you can experience them as a tourist just taking pictures, but you can also try some meditation. Who knows what comes up in these places that are beautiful by themselves for sure, but perhaps also most meaningful. They are left to us by a high-level native culture with origins still unknown, really.
An example of a stone tower from prehistory dotted all over Sardinia. A mistery still. We can go inside too! Their refinement is astonishing and should be world-famous.
Sardinia’s nature is pristine, pure, and treasured by Sardinians, proud island people.
We have selected our accommodations for their purity and local friendliness, not for being internationally mainstream. They can be somewhat rustic in appearance, but they are warm and inviting, and still score a 9 out of 10 on Booking platforms, maintaining their local uniqueness and richness.
A view on the romantically lit first village where we stay. For the rest: trust on us! We are sure you have the picture by now?
LOGISTICS
START 1 May 2026 – FINISH 8 May 2026.PRICE OF 2750 EURO INCLUDES:
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