Walking along the streets of Villacidro’s historic centre, going back over the pages of Paese d’ombre, Il disertore, San Silvano, is a captivating remarkable way to discover he most impressive angles, perceive intrinsic human and literary value and encounter the atmospheres breathed in his novels.

The washing place square, symbol of the novel Paese d’ombre e di Villacidro, is now, like it was then, a meeting point and centre in the town, a crossroads ideal for embarking upon numerous imaginative journeys…

One can walk along the Fluminera torrent, now covered and no longer visible, yet still possible to make out under the road’s surface; cross the square, once animated by the women’s chatter while washing their sheets; imagine the slaughter house, the troughs, the men’s voices while taking the animals to water; draw ones attention to the Murgia liquor factory, Cadoni mill, and some of the most beautiful houses in the town facing the square.

Nearby the Santa Barbara Parish church, the oratory of “nostra Signora del Rosario”, the Montegranatico, Piazza Cadoni. And others, via Roma, Dessì House, the Town Hall; the Baronial castle, now the Bishop’s Seminary, the old prisons.

One can cross the Castangias quarter and reach Catangias park, head down towards the Sant’Antonio quarter or admire all of this from the magnificent pine wood that embraces and encircles the entire town and a thousand more places…

Like on a painter’s palette, one can combine the stopping places in several ways: follow in the steps of Sofia who goes out to buy some salt, run the mad race of Francesco on his crazy young horse, sneak home, in the night, like Sante Follesa into the small Castangias house where his elderly mother is waiting for him; accompany Angelo and Carignosa towards the foaming valley of Sa Spendula … or listen to the voices of the pine trees…