Italy is a special place, Sardinia is a special and beautiful place, and Ulassai is a gem among gems. Sitting 20 minutes away from the Medeterainian, high in the mountains is a small little town, overflowing with history, tradition, and beauty.
Our good friend, and former Italian Champ and World Cup racer, Lorenzo Suding invited us to come to the town where his mother was born, a place he visited as a child through the years. It was a hard prospect to pass up, so without much of an idea as to what the journey would bring, we hopped on a flight to Olbia, Sardinia.
Sleepy, smelly, and burnt out, sitting in the car from the airport to Ulassai, Lorenzo explained that the people in Ulasssai would be so nice, and so insistent upon helping, feeding, and befriending you, that the safe bet is to always say yes, and welcome their friendliness back with open arms.
Within a few days spent amongst the locals, the overtly apparent vibe of trust, humility, respect, work ethic, and culture was downright obvious. It’s not hard to see why Lorenzo is working hard through his new company ‘Dolce Vita Bike Co.’ to bring people to Sardinia to ride. After a trip to the ancient island, not only will one find the trails to be a rocky, scenic, and fun time, but they’ll leave with perhaps a better understanding of how life “should” be.
While in Ulassai, there was a biking and climbing festival, bringing loads of people from all over the World. After being in the town a few days before the event, it seemed so many visitors might overwhelm the town, but soon we realized it only brought the community together further. Visitors from Cagliari, only 2 hours drive, to people from the other side of the globe who spoke no Italian, and certainly no Sardinian, were enveloped by the people of Ulassai.
“After spending most of my youth at the races, I want to take my time now and live this awesome sport in a more adventurous way with a sense of wilderness and discovery. Traveling and meeting new people has always been part of mountain biking for me. So after a lot of flying around the world I needed to settle down more. I quit racing to join forces with some good friends at an mtb guiding & shuttle company where I live in the Italian alps, aostavalleyfreeride.com, and then opened a tour operator, and called it Dolce Vita, of course. Now we’re ready to bring it back to the roots, offering tours around Italy to Mtb-ers from all over the world. This untamed part of the globe offers a great mix of trails, activities, culture, exquisite food and amazing beaches, making it a pretty sweet destination to take a refreshing vacation. Check out our new web site and all our adventures on dolcevitabike.com and jump onboard!”
-Lorenzo Suding
