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Oristano
It's a small city of about 30,000 inhabitants, located in front of the gulf with the same name, in the middle of the West coast of Sardinia; it’s easily accessible from the main ports and airports on the island and just a few kilometers from the sea.
The city center is characterized by low houses, steeples and towers that recall the glorious past of the Court of Arborea. Walking through the city center you will catch some very fascinating glimpses of some finely restored historic buildings, while other areas are a little more unkempt, but still very interesting from the architectural point of view.
In Piazza Corrias, inside the Parpaglia palace, the “Antiquarium Arborense” gathers a rich collection of relics from the pre-Nuragic the Nuragic, the Phoenician and the Roman ages; these heritages come from various archaeological sites, especially around the Sinis Peninsula, and include a variety of objects in obsidian from the fifth millennium BC. In the last hall of the museum, moreover, there is the exhibition of several different testimonies of the glorious Medieval period.
The beautiful Romanesque cathedral is very well worth a visit: it was built in the thirteenth century and it’s one of the largest churches on the island. In the same street there are also other places of interest such as the former hospital of Sant’Antonio, later used as a kindergarten: it was built in the fourteenth century and it has been recently renovated and transformed into public library and exhibition hall. Another visit should be paid also to the stretch of the old medieval walls of Oristano.
The shopping center is full of stores of all kinds, including many local craft shops, each specialized in a different field.
Some shops are well supplied with Sardinian filigree and coral, some offer the finest textiles, and others have beautiful potteries, some of them coming directly from the ceramic schools in Oristano.
In the city you will find local retailers of typical foods such as cheese, “bottarga” (mullet roe), wines, cakes and homemade pasta.
The city has a tourist information office in Piazza Eleonora and a summer branch office inside the Porta Nuova mall, which will normally be open every day from 9 AM to 9 PM, including on Sundays, with 43 stores as well as a large supermarket.
