Tramatza sits on a very fertile part of an alluvial plain dotted with basaltic boulders, proof of the volcanic activity of nearby Montiferru. It’s a small town of some 1,000 inhabitants at the edge of the Oristano Province and is cut through by the Cispiri river, one that has played a major role in its history and rural economy, including the production of highly resistant reeds. You see plenty of them along the river bank, together with willows, rushes and tamarisks – or tramatzu in local dialect, hence the name – a bank that is home to herons, water fowl and egrets. The remains of a Roman bridge dated to the late Republican early Imperial Age were found near the river.