Ales is a small town in the province

Provinces of Italy

In Italy, a province is an administrative division of intermediate level between a municipality and a region .-Overview:...

 of Oristano

Oristano

Oristano is a town and comune, capital of the Province of Oristano, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. It has approximately 32,500 inhabitants.Its economy is mainly based on fishing, agriculture and, to a certain extent, tourism.-History:...

 on the island of Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

 in the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

. It lies on the eastern slopes of Mt. Arci.
This area is the only Sardinian source of obsidian

Obsidian

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...

.

Together with the town of Terralba

Terralba

Terralba is a comune in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 70 km northwest of Cagliari and about 20 km south of Oristano...

, Ales forms the Roman Catholic diocese of Ales-Terralba. Its current bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 is Giovanni Dettori.

The town has its own Cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

, the Cathedral of St. Pietro. This is also the most famous landmark, showing how Ales' religious importance outweighs its meagre population size of about 1600.

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...

 and Fernando Atzori

Fernando Atzori

Fernando Atzori is a former professional boxer, and olympic boxing gold medalist from Italy.- Amateur career :...

 were born in Ales.

The nearest international airport is in Cagliari

Cagliari

Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...

, at roughly 70 kilometers distance.
The Zip Code is 09091 and the phone prefix is (+39) 0783