Once a 'mountain village', famous for the healthy air, now a modern little town that maintains its agricultural and pastoral traditions and produces excellent olive oil, wines, from which a fine liquor is made, and cherries, to which a famous feast is dedicated in June. Villacidro, a large town in the Medio Campidano province with 14 thousand inhabitants, stands where the plain makes way for the spurs of Monte Linas. Its wealth is its natural beauty, including: the valleys of Coxinas and Villascema, lush woods, among which the forest of Montimannu, dolomitic landscapes, meadows of asphodel and hills covered with Mediterranean scrub. The territory is filled with torrents that form spectacular waterfalls. The most famous, a holiday destination of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, is sa Spendula, a 'blade' of water that splits the rock between oleanders and holm oaks, making three consecutive drops. Along the trails of the Monte Linas-Oridda plateau-Marganai complex, a park ideal for trekking, tours by bike or on horseback, the show goes on with the waterfalls of the Linas rivulet, Piscina Irgas, that plunges after a drop of 45 metres, and Muru Mannu (in the territory of Gonnosfanadiga), the most impressive on the Island (70 metres high).

Villacidro is firmly anchored to the values of the past, celebrated by the writer Giuseppe Dessì, its most illustrious citizen, to whom the Dessì cultural park is dedicated within Monte Linas: the landscapes are those glorified by the works of the winner of the Strega Prize (1972). On the subject of culture, don’t miss out on a visit to the museum of sacred art, the pharmaceutical museum sa Potecarìa, and the archaeological museum of Villa Leni, once a grain bank. In it, there is evidence of a territory inhabited in the Neolithic period, then in the Copper Age and the Bronze Age (the Nuragic village of Cottega and various nuraghi) and in the Roman period (one necropolis and the ruins of two thermal baths), when the first residential area may have appeared, that of villa citra, the 'villa on this side of the river'. In town and in the countryside, among the religious buildings, two that stand out are the church of San Sisinnio (17th century), set between centuries-old olive trees, and the parish church of Santa Barbara, of sixteenth-century origin. Still remaining from its original Gothic-Catalan layout, there are the bell tower and the capilla mayor (choir) with a stellar vault, not affected by the renovation at the end of the 17th century, giving the church a Neoclassical appearance. During the 18th century it was enriched by prestigious furniture, like the main altar. The public washhouse, which was inaugurated in 1893, is worth visiting: its roof, which is supported by cast iron columns, protects 36 tanks clad with trachyte. The residential centre comes to life with various events, among which the Fuochi di Sant'Antonio Abate in mid-January and the celebration of is Animeddas (or Mortu mortu) at Halloween: Villacidro is traditionally known as the 'village of the witches'.