It is difficult to understand Nivola if you do not know the land of his origin. It is difficult to understand his character, and above all his work. His childhood was one of poverty in a small town in Barbagia.

His father would have liked him to work in the family trade as a mason. But Nivola liked to draw, and it was not easy to please him. For the family, even purchasing a sketchbook was a luxury.  Consequently, Nivola painted everywhere: on stones, in the street, on the steps of the house, on the walls. Nivola had virgin nature all around him: granite boulders, rose-colored earth, talc, strange land formations carved by the wind, folk dreams and imagination.