A Year in the Village of Eternity
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- 9,99 €
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- 9,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
The village of Campodimele in the Aurunci Mountains has been called
'the village of eternity' by World Health Organisation scientists,
after a study revealed the astonishing longevity of its inhabitants.
The average life expectancy of Campodimelani men is 90, compared to the
European average of 74, while women live to an average age of 86
compared to their European counterparts' 80.
Not
only do the villagers live to an extraordinary age, they also enjoy
healthy and active lives at an age when many people in the UK have
succumbed to general infirmity or the three major plagues of Western
life, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. How do they do it? Tracey
Lawson spent a year in the village to find out.
This book
chronicles twelve months in the life of Campodimele, focusing on the
seasonal cooking and eating habits that doctors believe are the key to
the villagers' unusually long lives. It includes insights from everyone
from cheerful Giovanni who has lunched on minestrone for 103 years and
96-year-old Corradino who still enjoys daily rides on his pushbike, to
the relative bambino of a mayor (in his forties) and the 93-year-old
signora who bakes her own rosemary and olive oil bread every day - as
well as a year's worth of simple, wholesome recipes that even the
busiest urbanite will be able to enjoy.
A Year in the Village of Eternity
is at once a sumptuously illustrated Mediterranean cookbook, a sensible
and inspiring food manual and a stunning and unique travel book - a
winning cross between Under the Tuscan Sun and Jamie's Italy with a dash of You Are What You Eat.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Intrigued about reports of super longevity in the inhabitants of a mountainous Italian village situated between Rome and Naples, British journalist Lawson decided to spend time there and uncover their secret to long life. As she discusses, in this rich and engaging narrative, while genetics accounts for 30% of the good health of the citizens of Campodimele, nestled in the Aurunci Mountains, the remaining 70% is based on a combination of "hyper-Mediterranean" diet (consisting of olive oil; beans and pulses; meat mostly from goats and sheep rather than bovine; fish; red wine; and only a little salt and sweets), an active and social lifestyle until very old age, and a daily routine geared toward the changing light, weather, agriculture, and seasons. Lawson's narrative follows the seasons in a country year, delineating the culinary routines of the typical Campodimele resident and cook, who tends her own garden in the back of her house, shakes her own olives from the trees in the orchard, kills her own pig for a year's supply of salsiccia (sausage), bakes her own bread (from her homegrown flour, naturally), and makes her own amarena (sour cherries) jam and stores of bottled tomato sauce for the winter. Lawson beautifully describes food at its simplest and finest green fava beans, homemade ribbonlike pasta, zucchini and hot peppers, shallots, and baby goat.
