Agriturismo Bellu

The Agriturismo Bellu offers guests the opportunity to stay in two environments that juxtapose the sophisticated hospitality of an old town with the sweet scents of the countryside. The first building, the old manor house, established in the late 1980s in the old town in Riola Sardo (10 km from Oristano), creates charming, comfortable environments, thanks to the furnishings consisting of many antiques. The second, more recent, building, built in 2006 after 20 years in business, is set in 4 hectares of vineyards and vegetable gardens, surrounded by Mediterranean shrubland and a peaceful pine forest.

The Agriturismo Bellu 1 was set up at the end of the 1980s following the complete restoration of a three-storey old stone manor house dating from 1800. Today, in full view throughout the building, you can still see the ancient sandstone load-bearing arches, used back in the day for constructing buildings with several storeys, with great decorative effect.
On the ground floor, in addition to rooms for Liliana and Gabriele’s family, there is a kitchen and a small room where breakfast and dinner are served in the winter months. In summer, on the other hand, guests can enjoy breakfast in the large garden at the back of the building. The first and second floors are home to 6 bedrooms, doubles and triples, some of which are en-suite and have air-conditioning.

The agriturismo Bellu 2 welcomes its guests in the countryside near Riola Sardo, just 4 km from the town. The building consists of a main section with a large, air-conditioned dining room seating about 90, where breakfast and dinner are served during the summer months. The room can also accommodate small ceremonies.
The 6 bedrooms, all very spacious, are only a short distance from the dining room: immersed in the vegetation, they are arranged in two small rows facing each other. All have private entrances and en-suite bathrooms, mosquito nets, air-conditioning and safety deposit boxes. A single bed or bunk bed can be added to the double rooms and almost all have a TV. On the small veranda outside the rooms, there are refrigerators for guests to share.

One of the rooms is equipped for disabled guests.

Distinctive features of this agriturismo are the Sardinian gastronomic specialities prepared by the owners, Liliana and Gabriele, for their guests: lemon-scented ricotta ravioli, strictly homemade, Campidanese-style gnocchetti, fregola pasta with artichokes and pancetta, or with wild asparagus or mussels, risotto with fresh tomato flavoured with lemon, the unfailing spit-roasted suckling pig and mixed grilled meats, the grilled fish with the flathead mullet from the Cabras pond, sea bream and sea bass, fried fish, vegetables and fruit grown in the agriturismo’s garden, typical Sardinian sweets such as pardule with ricotta, almond-based sweets such as ricciolini and gueffus, seadas, arrubious and pippias de zuccuru.

Riola Sardo (Arriòra in Sardinian) is a town of 2,137 inhabitants in the province of Oristano.

This small farming village is located to the south of the Rio Mare Foghe river, from which the town takes the first part of its name, “Riola”. Around the town, there are various areas of natural interest, such as the Cabras pond, which stands out due to its fresh and sea water and the fishing that still takes place on its shores. Further away, with a glance towards the coast, you can admire the “Roia de su cantaru” cliff. Currently, the economy is based on growing wheat, rice, grapes (for Vernaccia wine), vegetables, fruit and olive trees.

A short distance from Riola Sardo is the Sinis peninsula with its enchanting beaches.

The Sinis peninsula is the large stretch of land closing theGulf ofOristano to the West and bordered to the East and North by the large Cabras, Pauli Murtas, Sale Porcus and Is Béneas ponds. In the lower sections of this coast, there are distinctive beaches with sand and quartz granules. In the high sections, on the other hand, the majestic cliffs overlooking the sea act as a lookout towards Mal di VentreIsland opposite, to the North, and the Catalano rock to the South. The unique nature of this part ofSardinia is given by the feeling of continuity between land and sea.

The numerous nuraghe, megalithic monuments that dominate the lower hills, bear witness to the control of the area during the Bronze and Iron ages. The best-known archaeological site is, without doubt, the city ofTharros, founded by the Phoenicians around the eighth century BC, by the narrow promontory of Capo San Marco, and inhabited until the eleventh century AD, when, by order of the Judge of Arborea, the inhabitants moved to Oristano.

The landscape, with its cultivated fields, nuraghe, bridges and canals, is deeply marked by the presence of man, but never in a brutal and invasive way: sweetness is, in fact, the most characteristic feature of the nature in the Sinis area.
Most of the beaches and lagoons are protected natural areas, where you can go bird watching, hiking, biking or canoeing. By decree of the Ministry of Environment, 1997 saw the establishment of the Marine Park, which includes the island of Mal di Ventre (mistranslation of the Sardinian ‘de malu entu’ - of the bad wind) and the whole stretch of sea around the Sinis area.