A green lung made up of woods filled with holm and cork oak trees, interspersed with granite pinnacles, an area that once supplied coal to all of Sardinia and today preserves and protects indigenous vegetation and wildlife, as well as being home to an interesting museum. The Assai oasis extends for almost a thousand hectares between the territories of Neoneli and Nughedu Santa Vittoria. An ancient coal pit bears witness to the activity that thrived here, alongside the production of cork, until the 20th century. In 1983 the state forestry department took it over and Assai is now a permanent wildlife preservation zone. Today Sardinian deer, wild boar, fallow deer, wild cats and martens have made it their habitat. Among the birds, you may well spot some endemic Sardinian-Corsican species such as the sparrowhawk and the great spotted woodpecker, as well as rock thrush, raven and Sardinian partridge. For a few years now, even the golden eagle has returned to nest at the oasis.