Nuoro, Italy

NUORO's superb backdrop – beneath the soaring peak of Monte Ortobene and opposite the sheer and stark heights of Monte Corrasi – is its main draw for visitors, and it makes a useful transport junction and base for excursions. The last century has witnessed few changes, bar an unsightly accretion of apartment blocks and administrative buildings. Nuoro can lay claim to a distinguished literary heritage, however: Sardinia's best-known poet, Sebastiano Satta (1867–1914), was Nuorese, as was the author Grazia Deledda (1871–1936), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 in recognition of a writing career devoted to recounting the day-to-day trials and passions of local villagers.

Nuoro's biggest annual festival, the Festa del Redentore, is one of the most vibrant events on the island's calendar, taking place over the last ten days of August, when enthusiastic dancing and singing in dialect culminate with a costumed procession to Mount Ortobene.