| Where | West-central Sardinia, between Cagliari and Oristano |
| Known for | The Giara di Gesturi plateau and its wild horses |
| Time needed | A day trip, or two days combined with Barumini |
| Cost | Free to drive through; guided plateau walks from around €10-15, tours from Cagliari €30-70 |
| Best time | Spring and autumn, when the seasonal ponds hold water and horse sightings are more likely |
Sardinia without the coastline
Most visitors to Sardinia never set foot in the Marmilla, and that’s exactly what makes it worth a detour. This is a region of soft hills, wheat fields, artichoke plots, and small stone villages with names most guidebooks skip entirely — Tuili, Setzu, Genoni, Gesturi, Villanovaforru — strung along quiet roads with almost no traffic. There’s no beach here and no marina; the appeal is a genuinely rural Sardinia that hasn’t been shaped around tourism, sitting less than an hour from Cagliari.
The region takes its name from the low, rounded hills (marmille) that define its landscape, distinct from the sharper limestone country further east around the Supramonte. At its centre is Barumini and Su Nuraxi, Sardinia’s only UNESCO World Heritage site, but the Marmilla’s second draw — the Giara plateau — is arguably just as distinctive, and far less visited.
The Giara di Gesturi: horses on a volcanic tableland
The Giara is a basalt plateau roughly 600 metres above sea level, formed by ancient lava flows that eroded more slowly than the softer rock around them, leaving a flat-topped highland rising abruptly above the Marmilla. Its defining feature is the cavallini della Giara — small, stocky wild horses, dark bay or black, that are the only genuinely wild horse population native to Italy in their pure form. Numbers fluctuate but typically sit in the low hundreds, roaming freely across the plateau’s cork oak woods and open scrubland.
Autumn and winter rains fill shallow depressions on the basalt surface called paulis, temporary ponds that become the plateau’s main water source and, in turn, the best place to spot the horses gathering to drink. By late summer many of the paulis dry out completely and the horses disperse further into the woodland, so sightings become more a matter of luck than timing.
A combined Su Nuraxi and Giara di Gesturi tour pairs the nuraghe with a guided walk on the plateau, and having a local guide genuinely improves your odds of finding the horses rather than driving the access tracks blind. Our wild horses of the Giara guide covers access points and seasonal patterns in more detail.
Getting onto the plateau
Access points sit above the villages of Tuili, Genoni, Gesturi, and Setzu, each with marked tracks leading up onto the tableland — private vehicles aren’t allowed on the plateau itself, so you walk or join a guided 4x4 excursion from one of these entry villages. Genoni’s approach includes a small museum covering the plateau’s geology, flora, and the horses’ natural history; a combined Genoni Museum and Giara ticket covers both the exhibition and plateau access in one booking, a useful option if you’d rather explore independently on foot than join a set-departure tour.
For a shorter version that still covers the essentials, a 4-hour Su Nuraxi and Giara horses tour from Cagliari fits into a half-day itinerary, useful if you’re also trying to fit in a beach afternoon on the same trip — though given the drive times involved, that’s an ambitious combination rather than a relaxed one.
Walking the plateau independently
The Giara’s marked trails start at each of the access villages and are flat by Sardinian standards — this is a tableland, not a climb — but exposed almost the whole way, with little shade beyond a few patches of cork oak. A typical loop covers 4 to 6km and takes two to three hours at an easy pace, enough to reach one or two of the larger paulis without technical difficulty. The basalt surface is uneven underfoot and becomes genuinely slippery near the wetlands after rain, so trainers or light hikers work better than sandals.
There’s no water source on the plateau itself, so carry more than you think you’ll need, particularly walking in the middle of the day between June and August. Entry on foot is free at all four access villages; only the guided 4x4 excursions and the Genoni museum route carry a charge.
Practical tips for visiting
Parking at the access villages is free and informal — a gravel verge near the trailhead rather than a marked car park — and fills up on spring weekends when Sardinian families make the same drive out from Cagliari. Trails are unmanned outside a small ticket point at the busier entrances, so there’s no fixed closing time in the way a museum has one, but arriving with at least two hours of daylight left is the sensible rule, since the walk back to the car takes longer than most visitors expect. Mobile signal is patchy in places on the plateau, worth noting if you’re relying on a phone map to find the trailhead in the first place.
Villages worth a stop
Tuili has a small but well-regarded picture gallery in its parish church, with a retable attributed to the so-called Master of Castelsardo, an unexpected find in a village of a few thousand people. Villanovaforru sits on the western edge of the region and has its own small archaeology museum built around a nearby nuraghic site, Genna Maria, less visited and less complete than Su Nuraxi but worth a stop if you’re curious about the broader nuraghic landscape covered in our nuraghi of Sardinia guide. None of these villages have much in the way of formal tourist infrastructure — no gift shops, limited opening hours — so treat them as a slow drive-through rather than a checklist.
Wine and food in the Marmilla
The Marmilla sits within Sardinia’s broader Cannonau and Vermentino growing areas, and several small producers around Barumini and Las Plassas welcome visitors for tastings. A Su Nuraxi and Giara Park tour with wine tasting works this into a full day alongside the archaeology and the plateau, closing with a sit-down tasting rather than a rushed cellar-door stop. For background on what you’re drinking, see our Cannonau wine guide and our broader wine tours in Sardinia guide, which covers producers across the island for comparison.
Food here leans on the region’s grain-growing heritage: fresh malloreddus, bread baked in wood-fired ovens, and lamb raised on the surrounding pasture. Restaurants are modest and family-run rather than destination dining, priced well below anything you’d find on the coast.
Getting there and around
The Marmilla is a genuine drive-it-yourself region — there’s no meaningful public transport network connecting its villages, and the appeal is precisely in wandering the back roads at your own pace. Cagliari-Elmas airport (CAG) is 45-60 minutes from most of the region’s villages depending on exact destination; Oristano is a similar distance to the west. Roads are narrow, well-surfaced, and largely empty, but slower than a straight-line distance suggests — budget more time than a map implies, in line with the roughly 60 km/h average speed typical across Sardinia’s non-motorway network described in our driving in Sardinia guide.
When to visit
| Season | Conditions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spring (Mar-May) | Green landscape, wildflowers, paulis full | Best combination of scenery and horse-spotting odds |
| Summer (Jun-Aug) | Hot, dry, paulis often empty by August | Horses disperse into woodland shade; sightings less predictable |
| Autumn (Sep-Nov) | Rains return, paulis refill | Second good window, quieter than spring |
| Winter (Dec-Feb) | Cool, wet, quiet | Fewest visitors; some village businesses reduce hours |
Frequently asked questions about the Marmilla and the Giara
Are the Giara horses guaranteed to be visible?
No. They’re genuinely wild and roam freely, so sightings depend on season, time of day, and some luck. A local guide improves your chances significantly over a solo drive to the access points.
Can you drive onto the Giara plateau yourself?
No — private vehicles are barred from the plateau itself. You park at one of the access villages (Tuili, Genoni, Gesturi, Setzu) and walk in, or join a guided 4x4 excursion.
How does the Marmilla compare to visiting just Barumini?
Barumini gives you Su Nuraxi and little else within walking distance. The wider Marmilla adds the Giara plateau, several under-visited villages, and a genuinely rural side of Sardinia that a single-site stop doesn’t show.
Is the Marmilla worth visiting without a car?
It’s difficult without one. Public transport is thin across the region, and the appeal is largely in the freedom to explore small villages and access points at your own pace — an organised tour from Cagliari is the practical alternative.
Is there an entrance fee to walk on the Giara?
No — walking the marked trails from any of the four access villages is free. Only guided 4x4 excursions, horseback tours, and the Genoni museum route charge for access.
What else lives on the Giara besides the horses?
The plateau’s cork oak woodland and seasonal paulis support a modest range of birdlife, plus wild boar in the scrub — none of it the reason to visit, but worth watching for while walking between horse sightings.
