Traditional music, played on instruments not only unique in the world, but from easily found materials, can make the culturally curious giddy with delight.

Sardinia is an island of music played on such unique instruments, and there are several places to visit where you can learn about the history of the instruments and listen to the music their invention has fostered. We present them below, with a map at the end to pinpoint their locations.

Il laboratorio musicale di Raimondo Usai

Raimondo Usai’s music studio is near the town of San Vero Milis in Oristano province, where the cane used in the island’s iconic instrument, the Launeddas is found, as well as bamboo for traditional flutes and other instruments.

Some of Mr. Usai’s instruments come from recycled materials found along the roadside: bits of metal, spray cans and other tossed-away junk become instruments used by some of Sardinia’s best known musicians, including Cannas et Cordas.

According to Fare i turisti in Oristano, recycled wooden cheese forms, once used in shaping the island’s famous Pecorino cheese (they use plastic forms now), get goat skins stretched over them by Mr. Usai to become drums.

il laboratorio di Raimondo Usai: URM Sonos de Sardigna
via Aragona 17, Seneghe, Italia

Parish Instruments Museum of Popular Music Sarda (Museo degli Strumenti della Musica Popolare Sarda)

In the village of Tadasuni, also near San Vero Milis, you’ll find the small museum run by scholar Don Giovanni Dore. The collection, the result of 20 years of research, contains about 400 rare instruments, some powered by the wind. There is also collection of firearms dating to the 9th century.

Like many small museums in Sardinia, it’s best to call ahead, the museum has no posted hours.

Museo degli Strumenti della Musica Popolare Sarda
via Adua, 7
Tadasuni OR
Tel: 078550113

Museo delle Launeddas

Inside the interesting Casa Zapata, a noble residence built in the 16th century and belonged to the Aragonese Zapata family, you’ll find Casa Zapata, which sits atop an excavation of a Nuraghe called Su Nuraxi ‘e Cresia. You can visit by walking on plexiglass walkways over the excavations. If you zoom into the area on the map below, you can see the excavations extending to the west and south of the main building.

On the grounds you’ll also find a small ethnographic museum which includes the Launeddas Museum; realized from materials donated by Maestro Luigi Lai.

Casa Zapata is located in the town of Barumini, famous for a large Nuragic complex called Su Nuraxi, so you won’t lack for things to do in the area.

Museo Regionale delle Launeddas
Via Giovanni XXIII (c/o polo museale “Casa Zapata”) – Barumini (VS)
Tel. +39 070 9368476
e-mail: fondazionebarumini@tiscali.it

Open all year,
March and November: 10,00-13,30 / 15,00-17,30
April and September: 10:00 – 19:00
May and August: 10:00 – 20:00
October: 10:00 – 18:30
From December to February: 10:00 – 13:30 / 15:00 – 17:00

There is a bar, bookshop and the building has access for persons with disabilities.

Map of the Music Museums

View Sardinia – Musical Instruments in a larger map

And for another unique experience not far from Barumini, see Pinuccio Sciola, the Man Who Make Rocks Sing

If I were a rock climber, I suspect you’d see me clambering up Sardinia’s crags, then dropping into the clear blue sea to cool off. At least it sounds good.

Climbing in Sardinia: three new crags in the south gives you an idea of what’s in store for you, especially if you wanted to visit Villasimius for the festival of the Madonna del Naufrago, an underwater deal.

One of my all time favorite festivals in the world is coming up. It’s the Ardia held in the little town of Sedilo, where I spend several summers working on an archaeological project and slaving away in the kitchen for the crew.

The picture you see up on the right is special to me. I got up for the early morning race, the one they run for the locals, and positioned myself right outside the gates to the Sanctuary of Constantine (a saint in Sardinia) and waited for the horses to race down the hill toward this dangerous entrance to the grounds. I set my shutter speed low. I was planning to do the sort of pan shot I did when I photographed auto racing. Cars are one thing, horses? Well I expected the hooves to be a blur, because they move in many dimensions, not just in the panning direction. That was fine with me. The danger of this spot deserved a menacing speed blur.

The picture actually turned out just the way I planned it. But I’d taken the film to the local Sedilo shop, and the guy at the desk, who’d been used to telling people what was wrong with their photos, told me there was a problem. My heart lurched, thinking the picture was lost (Oh, those days of fragile film!) He showed me the picture. While I admired it, he started telling me why it was crap. He hated the blur. He told me I had to use a very, very high shutter speed to capture the horses in focus.

I didn’t know what to say (or how to say it in Italian). I finally mumbled a curt, “grazie” and grabbed my prize from his hand.

Art. It’s a personal thing I guess.

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Click to picture to see it larger.

To find out more about the actual running of L’Ardia, see: L’Ardia di San Costantino. The sacred race is held in early July. Its running in the future is in doubt, as animal activists have made some political rumbles about how cruel it is to animals. Several people have died in the race as well, often at the spot I photographed from. You can’t get many racing horses through that narrow slot, I can tell you.

Sardinia’s festivals are some of the most spectacular you’ll ever see. If you want to come to know Sardinia, much of your knowledge will come via the festivals.

Villasimius is the scene of the Madonna del Naufrago, or the Madonna of the Shipwreck, held on the second Sunday of July. The main act of the festival that honors shipwrecked sailors comes after a procession to the “Isola dei Cavoli” (The Isle of the Cabbages), where divers lay crowns of flowers on the head of the sunken statue of the Virgin with the Infant Jesus, made of pink trachyte, a work of Sardinian sculptor Pinuccio Sciola, the man who makes rocks sing. The statue is 11 meters under water, but visible from the surface using just a diving mask. Did I mention the clear waters off Sardinia’s coast?

You’ll also see traditional Sardinian costume and dances during the festival.

As you can see from the map below, Villasimius is in a very interesting position in southeast Sardinia. It is being developed for tourism, and you’ll find golf courses and beaches along the many kilometers of shoreline. Find a user-rated hotel in Villasimius

To get an idea of the history of the place, you should visit the museum built in the old fortress situated on a hill not far from Capo Carbonara.

Sardinia is today divided into the 8 provinces you see on our regions map. We’ll describe them from the most populous region in the south, Cagliari, and work our way north.

The Cagliari Province in the southeast of the island is the most populous, and contains the archaeological site of Nora near the resort of Pula, which contains a well-preserved theater (you can attend concerts there in summer) and thermal baths.

In the past, the province of Carbonia-Igesias was largely devoted to mining coal, lead and zinc. In fact, the city of Carbonia, called “le Citta’ del Duce,” was inaugurated by Mussolini on December 1938 to extract coal in Sardinia; the town still contains a wealth of fascist architecture. The former Serbariu coal mine is now a museum. The mines were closed in the 1970s. Monte Sirai is an impressive hilltop Phoenician-Carthaginian stronghold in the province.

The Medio Campidano is a younger province called the “Green Province” that includes the notable cities of Villacidro, Guspini, Serramanna, San Gavino Monreale, Sanluri. It also contains the famous nuragic complex of Brumini (Su Nuraxi). The Roman baths at Sardara are also worth visiting. Food specialties include civraxu, a large focaccia with a crunchy crust and soft core.

Oristano Province offers the visitor a couple of very fine festivals, Sartiglia in Oristano during carnevale time and l’Ardia di San Costantino in July in the town of Sedilo. The beautiful Tharros Archeological Site sits pretty along the coast, and the Fordongianus site has working Roman Baths. Santa Cristina has a sacred well, the construction of which is amazing to this day.

The province of Oligiastra was established in 2001; its the smallest province and the least populated. Named after the oleaster tree, it’s a wild place offering a beautiful coastline with caves you can visit—and plenty of great beaches.

Heading north we encounter the mountainous Nuoro region, legendary for its bandits, who, it was rumored, could easily jump on and plunder the very slow trains here by horseback or even on foot. The Gennargentu range is the highest and most important range here, and there are many karst caves. The rustic, mountain food is the best in Sardinia, served with pane carasau (music paper bread). The hams from pig or wild boar are excellent, mostly a deep mahogany red, masculine in color and structure compared to the pink and soft Parma hams. Seadas is a big, round raviole stuffed with fresh cheese and deep fried, then covered in honey or sugar.

Sassari province offers the tourist the Spanish flavor of Alghero, the hustle and bustle of the university town of Sassari, and the striking town of Castelsardo, with a medieval castle, the elephant rock which really looks like an elephant, and prehistoric tombs called the Domus di Janas, witches houses. The Nuragic complex of Santu Antine is one of the more famous on the island.

Finally, in the northeast corner of Sardinia we find Olbia Tempio Province. In 1962, the Arab Prince Aga Khan IV created the ‘Costa Smeralda Consortium’ and made the beer along the Costa Smeralda very, very expensive. Many ferries come in through the port of Olbia.