An original journey into the Sardinian community in Valencia

Santa Pasta is located at Calle del Murillo 10, a stone's throw from Plaza del Mercado. It's run by Marco Fanari and Riccardo Vinci , two locals aged 34 and 38 from Guspini. At the entrance, besides the restaurant's distinctive logo, a flag of the Four Moors flies, and a menu of the most famous Italian and Sardinian pastas appears: from malloreddus alla campidanese to culurgiones , including panadas and seadas . Marco bakes a white pani frattau , Riccardo rolls out a pizza and says: "We've been here in town since 2018. We opened Santa Pasta on July 7, 2025. We're an artisanal pasta shop, and the pasta is made strictly by hand. The feedback was immediately positive: the neighborhood welcomed us with open arms, perhaps because we recreated the atmosphere of a typical village neighborhood where people stop not only to eat but also simply to chat or have a coffee." Marco turns and continues along Riccardo's lines: "We have lots of Sardinian friends who live here: we manage to see some often, others less. On holidays like Sa die de sa Sardigna , we cook for our fellow countrymen, to make them feel a little less distant from home, coordinated by the members of the Shardana club."

The threads of a network, invisible to the naked eye, seem real and connect, in a necklace, many pearls scattered throughout a town of nearly a million inhabitants. The holes in each of these pearls, at first glance sealed, now seem ajar, allowing a glimmer of light through which another voice's story can flow. The scattered islands, with their stories, create bridges and become an archipelago. A new Valencia comes to mind, similar to the open-air museum of Maria Lai, an artist Pierluigi Melis , president of the Circolo Shardana, knows well. "In Sardinia I worked at the Art Station in Ulassai. In Spain I obtained my tourist guide qualification in 2016, living there since 2011 after meeting my wife, a true Valencian. The foundations of the current club were laid in 2017, through a Facebook page managed by Luca Comino and Luigi Casada . A great point of reference was Salvatorina Fresi 's Improntas restaurant in Montresta: a true magnet for all those nostalgic for the island's dishes. On October 18th, Improntas restaurant won the Fregula D'Oro award and, in 2023, won an episode of the television program Little Big Italy , hosted by Francesco Panella. "Salvatoria is a source of pride for us," Melis continues, "but besides her, there are many people worth mentioning, such as Omar Cauli , professor of Physiopathology at the University of Valencia, Stefania Carta, translator of Tolkien's books and Sardinian authors into English, but also the engineer from Bitta who speaks to you in limba , the advertising graphic designer with innovative ideas to promote our culture. In addition to other places like Mamuthones Gourmet , Sardo , and L'Antica Osteria . There are so many stories. We will continue to unite them with our initiatives: from films to theatrical and musical shows that recall our origins without distancing themselves from the influences of the present, as often happens at the concerts of Nicola Agus , a friend of our circle."

To conclude the journey, we pass by the bookstore again. The photograph of Gramsci is no longer hanging. It's in your hands. You look into his eyes and he seems less alone. Perhaps he never was. Behind the postcard, writings, quotes, new names emerge. Perhaps they were there before, even if you couldn't see them.