Are you sad to go back up there to Santu Lussurgiu, to your blackened volcano, your former home? You were born in an extinguished crater, which will awake again. A proud cradle, Rudu! Does it not lie near your heart? Between Logudoro and Arborea, among the gigantic sepulchers of the ancient races, all enclosed in a basalt cloister and open only to the south-east wind, the breath of Africa, it looms above like the expressive figure of the most virile fate. Remember how we listened to the August wind that bore the red flocks to the Cabras swamp? I said to you: "Come with me, homine de abbastu". We forgot to explore the exhausted mine on Montiferru, obeying the call to journey beyond the seas. Now go, return to the heights again; and each spring when your meadow fills with asphodel, light me a fire of lentisk wood on a nuraghe for old time's sake, and remember me in your songs.

The town of Santu Lussurgiu is situated midway up the western slope of Montiferru. With the mountains towering above it in a semicircle to the North-West, it lies in a volcanic basin or mouth, and with its houses spread out like an amphitheater opening to the South-East appears to the eyes of the visitor only upon his arrival. At twilight instead the position of the town can be determined from afar, indicated by the reddish glow of the lamps rising to the sky over the mountain top, as if the ancient volcano were reawakening now. Santu Lussurgiu lies 550 meters above sea level, in the Province of Oristano. It has a population of a little less than 3000 and an economy based mainly on stock-breeding and craftsmanship. Nearly 10,000 hectares of fascinating, virtually uncontaminated environments, of primitive arboreal essences, of archeological sanctuaries and stupendous panoramas sweeping the horizon where the basalt has created primordial morphologies, have modeled the houses, streets and little squares occupying the historic center of the town. Here life flows calmly (or so it seems!) and body and soul can be restored in long hikes over the mountains amid which the town spreads out to greet the early morning sun. Trails lead among age-old woods and the hundreds of springs of purest water (often termed "miraculous" for their exceptional curative properties) which behind the town form a network of lively streams, broken by steep waterfalls and populated by trout and eels, with the scent of the sea rising over the hills to mingle with the perfume of myrtle, lentisk, lavender and time. These are the green lungs of Oristano Province where animal species threatened with extinction (deer, mufflon, griffins) find an ideal habitat in which to live and reproduce. Here the best Anglo-Arabian-Sardinian horses are raised, going on to win horse shows and perpetuate the tradition that has always linked the name of Santu Lussurgiu to the horse. Age-old traditions mark the months of the year, in a clock of customs that strikes the hour, from January through December, of events featuring folklore, horses, music, economics, wine and food, culture and religion. An ideal place for study (three high schools, libraries, the Popular Culture Center, the Museum of Peasant Technology), for meditation and vacation, for all those who seek a real relationship with nature, genuine foods, and hospitality, still considered sacred here.