You must drive up the winding mountain roads of Ogliastra to reach the small village of Osini (accent on the first i), but a visit to such an unusual place, so far-away from the beaten tracks of conventional tourism, is well worth it. Coming from the south, the first village you will encounter is Osini Nuova, the new settlement built after 1951; drive just a bit further and you will get to the old village abandoned after devastating torrential rains caused a tremendous landslide.

The beauty of the place is all in the suggestions that  the old houses inspire: you go through the streets, not a soul, and in front of you appears, rather well-preserved, the perfect image of an Ogliastra village of the 1950s: the typical houses, the wooden doors still framed in aureoles of red or blue, the small church from the 1700s modestly hidden amid a crowd of houses, the working tools abandoned in the streets.

On leaving the village (possibly with the assistance of an improvised guide) you can reach one of the many Nuragic villages used as a sheep-fold until a few years ago. The most important and best-kept Nuraghic complex is Serbissi, located just a short distance from a Neolithic tomb, called S’Orku, the sepulchre of a fantastic giant being, according to oral tradition. This peculiar eight-tower Nuragic complex is built on top of a huge natural grotto supplied with two entrances. Osini does not end here: the archaeological-minded will find  more to discover. On the highest peak of the mountains dominating the valley are the ruins of an ancient building, maybe a medieval castle. Nothing is known of this mysterious construction, except a name, su Casteddu, meaning the castle!

Along the series of rocky cliffs that delimit the vast limestone plateau called Taccu of Osini, to the east, is Scala di San Giorgio (St George’s ladder). For ladder the local people intend a steep and rugged pass through a crag. In fact it is a very narrow gorge ,with high limestone-dolomitic walls, through which runs the road coming from nearby Osini.