This text comes from the stern archive and first appeared in January 2024.
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The fact that we come to research, i.e. to work, is a bad thing. Some villagers shake their heads in greeting. They sit with Jerry on wicker chairs that belong to the bar and from which they look over the fig tree into the bay. You have to go on holiday here, they say, but not work! The setting sun bathes the ridiculously beautiful place in orange light, a wild bush on the church tower sways in the evening wind. Below, a woman nimbly picks capers from the bush. Pollica in Cilento, 2,200 inhabitants, two and a half hours’ drive from Naples down the winding coast. The region has the Italian word for slow in its name, lento. That’s how life works here.
And it runs quite long. According to one count, in 2019 there were more than 300 centenarians among the approximately 90,000 residents in the area. According to the mayor of Pollica, there are up to 400 today. Of course, some die. The pandemic, pneumonia, a heart that just stops beating. But there are always new old people coming.
We, modern people, track our steps with apps, optimize our rest phases, and invest in treatments for body and mind. And in Pollica, where the reception in the alleys between the thick walls of the palazzi is faltering, where old men slap the playing cards on the table in the evenings and the women cross themselves every time they walk past the church, they still end up getting older ? Live healthier? How is that possible?
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
