The sun is shining to illuminate these two days of "Autumn in Barbagia" which in Orune marks a season of rebirth for the communities, after the closure, which lasted two years, due to the pandemic.
Last days of an anomalous autumn, which sees the sun dominate the surrounding valleys from where the sea can be seen, an omen of infinite horizons that open up to the world.
Numerous visitors who have already crowded the streets of the town since Saturday and who literally invade the historic center of Orune on Sunday. There is much to see, much to marvel at.
The little girls who recall old games in the square, dressed as little women, take rag dolls for a walk like ancient janas in an enchanted park and their gazes lead the tourists who creep into the old houses refurbished for the occasion.
Everything in Orune presents a truly hospitable community, among the few left.
These are not the usual Cortes to which recent events have accustomed us, there is craftsmanship, flavours, aromas and the exquisite art of hospitality. A characteristic that here is not a mere adjective is a deep feeling of a community, raised, naturally nourished and offered as a guarantee of a well-defined identity.
Algorithms of the heart that in the cortes of Orune regain the metric of the most authentic feelings. Devotion almost to the traditions that emerge like lichens on people's actions. Culture that touches the deepest chords of the human being: Leather makers, tailors, confectioners and bakers display their works as in a natural art journey, as a symbol of belonging to a community that symbolizes hospitality. Bread, in this last appointment of Autumn in Barbagia, becomes an extraordinary protagonist and in Pane 'e Prendas, the installation dedicated to it in the spaces of Casa Murgia, restores physicality to a true journey of the senses between ancient jewels and the votive breads described in the Deleddian tales.
The carasau bread, the ricotta bread and su pudzonedhu de su Cossolu, kneaded on sight in front of the visitors, summed up the housewives' ability to transform a simple grain into fairy-tale flour, filling the narrow streets with magic, as in an ancestral tale.
An event that elsewhere has turned into a village fair, in Orune rises to an extraordinary journey of the senses alerted by the scents of a food and wine that is never predictable. Art, tradition, hospitality intertwine, creating a warp with an incomparable charm that the community has been able to offer. Scattered crumbs that, as in Perrault's story, mark the way forward to save this extraordinary agro-pastoral culture, so that those who come after us can still enjoy it.
