The red zone became a blue zone. The star patterns in the tree trunks are reflected in the stars of the night sky – and in the stars that have checked in at Su Gologone over the years. A colorful hotel that awakens emotions, creates wonder, connection and presence.
LAND I FEEL LIKE A CIRCUS DIRECTOR, A SET DESIGNER OVER EVERYTHING HERE
THE PLANET IS GOING DOWN for landing on Airport Olbia Costa Smeralda. The airport's name signals that it is in the area where the famous Emerald Coast begins. But we are going in a different direction – inland, to Barbagia in the heart
of Sardinia, an area that has today received new attention after being classified as one of the world's blue zones.
They speak Italian in the car. I understand a little but am mostly busy looking around. The Supramonte mountains rise on the horizon. We turn off the main road, pass Olive oil and drive through a white gate. Here a new world opens up, where the white plastered facades meet an explosion of color so obvious that I instinctively stop. How can so many colors create such harmony?
MADONNA AND ME
I barely have time to think clearly before we arrive. The bags are carried up to room 86, with the addition Dedicata a Francesco Cuisa, one of the artists who characterise the place. I step into a two-storey suite with a terrace and a
outdoor bathtub with a magical view. Right here, too, Madonna lived – for a month during the filming of the film Swept Away. The impressions are many, and almost overwhelming, and I am grateful to have a massage booked right away. The sun is setting, the colors are softening, and so is the body. Dinner awaits with Linda, we met each other on the way from the airport. She is here as a friend and collaborator of Giovanna Palimodde
– the woman behind what Su Gologone is today.
“Sometimes I feel like a circus director, a stage designer over everything here,” she says a few days later when she finally sits down. We are sitting at a small table. The napkins are orange for the evening. A suckling pig is slowly roasted over an open fire. A selection of vegetables, pasta and cold cuts are laid out on the table. I try pane carasau – the thin, wood-fired bread – for the first time, and taste the famous Cannonau Winery. Everything feels unassuming but careful, served with obvious pride by a waitress who has worked here for over ten years and comes from Oliena, just like the majority of the staff. I ask Linda how she found her way here.
– It was my husband who discovered the place. He traveled here many years ago with his parents. They took the car over by ferry. Then we went here together, and since then I have been coming back. The restaurant is filled with both hotel guests and guests from outside. Conversations mix with the sounds from the kitchen. The evening is rounded off with almond cake, a last glass of wine and the day is over.
IN THE RED ZONE
The next morning I meet Gianni Maricosu for the hike up to Tiscali in the Supramonte mountains. He has been a guide for 30 years and currently works for Su Gologone. He starts his Land Rover Defender 110 from the 1990s, equipped
with dual gearboxes. We set off and don't make it past the corner where a couple have a flat tire. It shows
They are colleagues. Gianni picks them up and drops them off a little further away. We hop on. The car is old, and the original idea was to replace it with something more comfortable. But when Giovanna found out
that there really are no better cars than this one for the steep mountain roads, it rolls on. Gianni, who has a few pigs and a few sheep of his own and makes his own wine and cheese, talks about everything from deforestation to reforestation, about agriculture and about history.
– After the Second World War, the last major deforestation took place here. The forest was cut down to make way for pastures. The consequence was a changed landscape. The shepherds' lives shrank. Gianni sums up:
– Today is available at Sardinia 2.5 million sheep, half a million goats, and 1.5 million people. The forest disappeared and although a reforestation project was launched quite immediately, it is only now that nature is starting to catch up. He stops at a tree trunk and shows how it has grown back in a star formation. The cicadas are loud, a bird is chirping, it is said that there are also large birds here but today they keep their distance. We walk along the mountain wall, the sounds are muffled and we approach the passage between two cliffs that leads us up towards Tiscali.
Tiscali is a dolina – a huge sinkhole that was created when the roof of a cave collapsed. Here, archaeologists have found traces of settlements from the Bronze Age, a refuge from Roman expansion in 238 BC. Christ. Later, the place became known for stories of robbers and clan feuds and what was called ”Sardinian banditry”.
“This area was called the red zone for a period because of all the violence,” says Gianni.
For me, meeting Tiscali will be one of the highlights of the trip. A mix of nature, archaeology and history that makes me create film scripts in my mind.
LUNCH IN THE STONE HOUSE
It's getting to lunch time. And now the Land Rover is going to work. Low gear. Four-wheel drive. Then Gianni does something with the car that I don't really understand, but slowly we make our way up the mountain. We're going to have lunch at Tonnino's in his pinnettu – a stone house that was once the home of the shepherds in the mountains. Tonnino doesn't live here permanently, but is
here almost every day. In a cave next door he has his lambs and sheep that graze freely during the day and return in the evening. From their milk he makes cheese. Lamb sausages are grilled over an open fire. He sets out vegetables, cheese, pane carasau. Cannonau wine is poured into the mugs from a large carafe. They speak Italian, I understand a little, Gianni sums up.
– We are talking about an acquaintance who moved to France and now became ill while he was visiting home. He is thinking about staying. He has his family here who can take care of him. It comes up all day – the family,
the closeness and loyalty. A kind of social fabric that holds everything together. The Sardinian mentality also contains a strong individualism, perhaps shaped by generations of lonely shepherds in the mountains. Perhaps that is why family ties often weigh more heavily than other forms of cooperation. We drive down the crazy road. Tonnino's red Fiat is parked down here. It won't go up. He simply has to go up to his pinnetto.
SHE RETURNED AND BEGAN STEP BY STEP TO SHAPE WHAT IS TODAY SU GOLOGONE WITH THE ADDITIONAL LABEL EXPERIENCE HOTEL
MOSAIC CRAFTS AND BREAD BAKING
In the afternoon it's time to experience Su Gologone on site. There are lots of activities on offer here, and we start with mosaic crafts together with Anna who will be our guide. We now stick small mosaic pieces and small beads on a plate in almost total silence. There is anticipation in the air and tonight's bakery has lit the fire, sparkling wine is poured into the glasses. We continue into what is called the Nest of Bread. Many of us have met up here, it will be a bit of an after hike. I talk to some Americans who have also been up in Tiscali today. Now we will see how to bake pane carasau – a hard bread baked with a sourdough that has been passed down through generations. The dough is rolled out and baked once, the loaf rises, is taken out and divided in two.
The bread halves are then grilled once more. The bread is crispy, thin and addictive, and definitely worth buying to take home – even if it happens to crumble. The calm reigns and we take the opportunity to walk down to the Cedrino River and its source, just a few hundred meters from the hotel. The crystal-clear karst spring is one of Sardinia’s most important water sources. Here, water that has collected in the limestone bedrock is forced up to the surface and forms the beginning of the Cedrino River.
Before dinner, enjoy a glass of cool white wine at Magico Tablao, which is located right next to the wonderful interior design and jewelry store. The Art Shop at the top of the hotel area. Here we are treated to a view of the
magical Supramonte mountains accompanied by colorful cushions and prickly cacti.
ART IS CENTRAL
Tonight we sit further into the restaurant, the napkins are blue, the art magnificent. Female artists are the theme. Here we have pictures where the headdresses of different folk costumes, from different places, are in focus. We eat and enjoy a pasta with ricotta and wild fennel, Giovanna sits down. She also orders a pasta, and she tells the story of how it all started with her father starting to sell sandwiches by the water source. Year 1959 He opened a restaurant here, and eventually eight rooms were added.
”Su Gologone was then known as a ”barbeque place’,” she says. It was a troubled time in Sardinia, the zone
was red, and dad sent Giovanna off to Tuscany. There she studied art and design but she longed to return to her Sardinian roots. She returned and began to shape step by step what is today Su Gologone with the additional label Experience Hotel. Here she finds an outlet for her creativity – down to the smallest detail she has been involved and has left her mark on everything here. The colours, the art, the recycled elements – everything is woven together and comes to life. Art has a central place and today we find works by 25 Sardinian artists here.
Making dreams come true, creating something new and developing the business is an ongoing process. One project that has not yet reached its full potential is the outdoor spa she wants to create. The land was available, but instead she chose to create an outdoor restaurant inspired by the blue zone philosophy. It was a simple and quick project, she notes.
– Our outdoor spa is one of the projects I’m postponing for the future. Our conversation meanders its way to a trade fair in Marrakech, a meeting with a large department store in New York. We laugh together. Suddenly the staff needs help. Giovanna immediately gets up and disappears. Something needs to be solved. Someone needs support. She takes care of what is needed to keep this colorful circus running. Maybe that's where the secret lies. Not in the suites, the art or the famous guests, but in the people who make it all happen.
SU GOLOGONE EXPERIENCE HOTEL
Oliena, Sardinia
Price example 2 nights for 2 people, September 4–6 in a Suite Dell Arte,
including breakfast: 3,000 Euros. There are both more expensive and cheaper alternatives.
Tips: Don't forget your hiking boots.
www.sugulogone.it/en
