From shadowy villages to "Literary Places." Let them come to life as novels, thanks to expert writing. Five Sardinian villages: Buggerru, Castiadas, Senorbì, and Tratalias in the southern part of the island, and Meana Sardo, in the heart of Barbagia, become the protagonists of a small grand tour designed to highlight, through new stories, the peculiarities and attractions of territories rarely explored by the most intense tourist flows. Five writers: Andrea Alba, Anna Bertini, Massimo Granchi, Marisa Salabelle, and Massimiliano Scudeletti, will be welcomed by the communities for a literary residency that is an immersive experience, immersing them in places and people, and their productive, entrepreneurial, cultural, religious, and social realities. It's an opportunity to discover, or rediscover, landscapes, history and stories, traditions, artisanal knowledge, and memories.
The fruit of this experience will be a collection of short stories set in the host countries, published in the book "Literary Places Sardinia 2025," published by Arkadia. The initiative was conceived by Gianmarco Murru, creator and project manager of "Literary Places," president of the cultural association "Mediterranea," and editor of the publication "Mediterraneaonline.eu," and Giulio Pisano—creator and artistic director of "Literary Places," as well as editor of the literary agency EditReal—who will curate the collection and oversee its presentation in Sardinia and the Italian peninsula. The project was presented yesterday afternoon, Friday, December 5th, in the conference room of the Banco di Sardegna Foundation in Cagliari. And from here begins the journey of the writers, who will be accompanied by the mayors in residence, each to their destination and then narrate those countries, each in their own way.
Now in its second edition, "Literary Places of Sardinia"—the first, inaugurated in 2022, included Villacidro, the shadowy town made famous by Giuseppe Dessì—it was exported to Piedmont and Veneto in 2023 with a format variously adapted to the geographical context. "The basic idea is to regenerate places, to introduce them through literature to travelers seeking experiences related to cultural, sustainable, and slow tourism," emphasizes Gianmarco Murru, "but above all to foster encounters between administrators to create a network of 'literary towns.'" Giulio Pisano, who accompanied the writers throughout their literary residency in the previous edition, added: "Ours is a journey into an Italy that is invisible yet so rich in beauty. A small grand tour that has already held and will hold even more new surprises."