We’re taught to believe that the key to a long and healthy life is a consistently healthy lifestyle, right? By that logic, anyone who follows a moderate diet, exercises regularly and refrains from smoking, should live to be at least a hundred.
But a trip to the this small village on the southern end of the Italian Amalfi coast may change all you think you know about long lives.
Acciaroli is a tiny port town on the Italian coastline that will wow you with its stunning vistas and relaxed lifestyle.
Acciaroli has recently begun to be studied by researchers because of its unusually high number of centenarians – people over the age of 100.
The mayor of the town boasts of how they have more 100-year-old residents than any other place in the world. About 300.
Several of the town’s elderly folk have managed this despite being constant smokers and visibly overweight.
And guess what, over 20 percent of them have reached the age of 110.
What’s more, the area has bafflingly low rates of Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
Rosemary, a herb that has long been linked to preventing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and improving brain function and memory is a staple here.
They grow it everywhere you go, and use it as a garnish or in oils and that may have something to do with this town’s miraculous life-expectancy.
A minimally industrialised town, the residents of Acciaroli breathe the freshest air on earth.
The beaches and the hilly areas make for breath-taking sights all over. I imagine living a stress-free life amongst these would surely bump one’s life up by more than a few years.
We can go on guessing what their secret is. But at the end of the day, a resident of Acciaroli have found something we may forever struggle to find – a long and more importantly, peaceful life.