“When the teacher asked us to draw freely, almost everyone would instinctively create a little house with a tree beside it, the sun shining, and mountains in the background. To me, it represents the archetype of an idyllic place,” says Marco Maria Berio, a native of Liguria and the owner of Gallicantu Stazzo Retreat in Luogosanto, in the Gallura countryside. That very image is depicted in a naive painting hanging in the hotel’s open kitchen. Berio received it as a gift when he was a child, and it has accompanied him everywhere since. Now, at 65 years old, he still believes that the image represents the essential beauty that everyone needs. This, in fact, is how he explains the concept of Gallicantu, his ideal home that he shares with guests.

It all began in 2019 when Berio left his position as director of the Pevero Golf Club to start a new venture. He had found a “stazzo” from 1930, abandoned for more than fifty years: “It was more of a dump than anything else. It took over a year just to clear out the trash,” he recalls. But he saw great potential in the land, which has since proven true, considering what Gallicantu has become today—a charming retreat inspired by the organic architectural style typical of the Costa Smeralda, surrounded by dense woods, granite rocks resembling sculptures, and the silhouette of Corsica visible on clear days.

“Everything you see around here was made practically at zero kilometers and in the most sustainable way possible. The people who worked and continue to work here are mostly from Luogosanto,” says Berio. Apart from some advice from Jean-Louis Lesuisse, the architect who collaborated on the Costa Smeralda project, the structure is the product of Marco and his local surveyor Massimo Piredda’s ideas. This is how juniper branches are embedded in whitewashed walls, curves take precedence over rigid right angles, and nature is accommodated rather than altered—a tree or rock isn’t removed but adapted to, given their centuries or millennia-old positions. The “stazzo” itself, the typical Gallura farmhouse, was restored in a way that’s still uncommon in Sardinia, where converting rural buildings into hotels, as has been done in Puglia, Sicily, and other regions, is not yet usual. To this bucolic picture, with a boutique, a wine cellar, and a bar carved into ancient caves, and an orchard where guests can pick cherries, plums, pomegranates, or oranges depending on the season, another extraordinary human value is added. The presence of Raffaella Manca, Berio’s Sardinian partner with long, flowing hair on her slender frame, adds a magical touch to a place already rich in ancient energy. Raffaella, with many years of experience working in the luxurious hotels of the Aga Khan, knows what hospitality, warmth, courtesy, and service mean. It’s thanks to the combination of experience, authenticity, and intuition that Gallicantu represents the ideal setting for a break from daily life.

Here, silence reigns; guests can embark on a treasure hunt in the woods, seek shade in the outdoor living room under the olive trees, swing in hammocks, or sunbathe by the pool. If you’re thirsty, you don’t call a waiter—you head to the small chalet adorned with photos of golf courses, a lifelong passion of Berio, and help yourself to cold water, coffee, and Sardinian-made ice cream. The vacation style is simple yet effective. The phone signal in the room is spotty (eventually, you surrender, which is no small relief), and the evening is greeted with a lavish aperitivo: artichokes, stuffed peppers, sweet-and-sour onions, blue-veined pecorino, crispy pane guttiau, and chilled Vermentino or Spritz. You won’t want to leave. Homesick for Sardinia? Here, it’s guaranteed. The good news? You can come back—just 90 minutes of flight from any Italian airport, plus 40 minutes by car.