Amid the woodland-covered mountains of upper Liguria, in northern Italy, you can find small villages with clusters of houses made of terracotta and stone – and some of Europe’s longest-living residents. When I first stayed in this area for an extended period a few years ago, I noticed my chronic joint pain and fatigue disappeared, only to quickly return once I was back in the UK.
Was it the weather, or had the Ligurian lifestyle turned back the clock at a more fundamental level? Italy is home to the oldest population in Europe, and new research by the University of Salerno shows Liguria is now the region with the greatest proportion of people living into their 90s, beating the country’s Blue Zone region of Sardinia.
