Set at an altitude of almost 300 m above sea level it is surrounded by fertile fields, the verdant hills of the Marmilla and the Flumini Mannu river. The centre of the town of Villanovafranca boasts a population of just under 1,500 inhabitants who live in homes nestled around the parish church of San Lorenzo. Farming is the town’s most important livelihood, mostly cereals, but also tending to olive groves, vineyards, almond trees and, above all, saffron, grown and processed in keeping with strict DOP regulations.

The village has a variety of belvederes from which to gaze out over a cone-shaped hill that is home to the ruins of the Las Plassas (or Marmilla) castle, the defensive outpost of the area when it was ruled by the Arborean kings.