Discover Mamone

Mamone offers a range of starting points for planning your trip: the history of the Casa di Reclusione Mamone, the Cammino di Bonaria and the route through Tepilora Nature Park. If you’re looking for a hotel for your stay, you can first consider whether history, hiking or scenery is your main focus. The routes have different characteristics and should not be treated as interchangeable.

History of the Casa di Reclusione Mamone

The Istituto penale di Mamone was founded in 1882. A description from October 2025 mentions wine cellars dating from the 1930s, historic winemaking equipment and large oak barrels; the largest barrel holds around 21,000 litres. These details add a tangible perspective on the cellars and winemaking to the institution’s history.

In 2025, an extraordinary visit to the Casa di Reclusione Mamone was possible as part of a FAI event. This occasion sits alongside the institution’s longer history and gives the place a more recent, dated point of reference.

The Cammino di Bonaria

The Cammino di Bonaria offers a digital route that can start directly at the Casa di Reclusione Mamone and continue as far as Bitti. The stage is rated moderate to challenging and marked with the trail’s blue arrow. This gives you both the possible route and its stated difficulty rating to help with navigation. When planning your own hike, it is worth considering both details together.

Much of the Cammino follows a former mule track known as the “via della transumanza”. Shepherds used it to travel from the plateaus of Bitti and Buddusò to the milder areas around Olbia. The name thus refers to the route’s former use and the connection between these landscapes. This history is another distinctive feature of the Cammino di Bonaria, alongside its current difficulty rating.

Woodland and pasture landscape

Another perspective is offered by the Tepilora Nature Park route from Bitti to SS Annunziata. Along it, the SP50 heads towards Mamone through stands of cork oak and holm oak, with a cistus understorey, before reaching the fields used as pasture by the penal colony. The wider landscape context also includes Mamone’s granite plateau in the northwest of Onanì, where golden eagles breed.

The routes have different emphases: the Cammino di Bonaria also foregrounds the area’s former use by shepherds, while the description of the SP50 highlights woodland, undergrowth and pastureland. The granite plateau adds another named natural area to this landscape context.

Getting to Mamone

Mamone can be reached by car via the SC Bitti–Mamone or the SP Lodè–Mamone. A shuttle service on the Sologo–Bitti–Mamone route may be another option; check before travelling whether a service is available for your appointment. You can plan your journey using the roads mentioned or a shuttle service available for your appointment.

Discover more destinations: Oliena, Mamoiada, Posada, Talavà, Macomer, Concas, Belvi, Tiana.

For the broader travel overview: Nuoro.