There is a splendid exhibition in the former railway station of Ulassai, a mountain municipality in the province of Ogliastra, where the genius of Maria Lai was born. This is an atypical museum that overlooks a valley surrounded by limestone Buttes, not far from the village, where a large collection (150 works) by the great artist who died in 2013 is kept: ceramics, sewn books, frames, canvasses and terracotta pieces donated to the village by its most illustrious daughter, who drew inspiration from her origins and created an infinity of forms that made her famous throughout the world. Created in 2006, dedicated to her and renamed Station of Art, the museum occupies three renovated buildings, where trains climbed up along the Gairo-Jerzu line until 1956. It is now the point of arrival of the creative journey of an artist and her place of birth, which began with 'Legarsi alla montagna' (1981), when the surrounding mountains and houses of Uassai were united with a sky blue ribbon tens of kilometres long. This and later events make Ulassai an open air museum.

The works are displayed alternately on a thematic basis. The itinerary starts from the building in which the waiting room and the house of the station master were located: on the ground floor, on white walls, the bright colours of the velvets of Astral Geographies stand out, along with the jeans canvas that describes the universe of Earth and Sky and the needles and hanging threads, inserted into the canvasses, inviting a reinterpretation of infinity. The upper floors are dedicated to personalities who had an influence on Maria Lai: Giuseppe Dessì, Salvatore Cambosu and Arturo Martini. You will be fascinated by the sewn book that tells the tale of the distracted god and of the janas who taught the Nuragic women to spin fabrics, the terracotta of Maria Pietra, the Sculpture that breathes and the everyday Stones. The former train depot welcomes you, on the ground floor, with an invitation to the table, symbol of culture as a food for the soul and the mind. On the first floor, in the In sa mat' e s'olia, there is an endlessly tangled brass thread, inspired by Garçia Lorca. In the square, you will find Intertwined Tales, a tribute to Antonio Gramsci.

You can combine the visit to the Station of Art with one to the centre of Ulassai, where you can admire sculptures by Lai and other artists, as well as a trip to the caves of Su Marmuri, which are among the most extensive in Europe, where stalactites and stalagmites are still growing constantly.