A Year in the Village of Eternity

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.