Sardinian village Bolotana emerges as possible blue zone for female longevity

The research was conducted by professors at the University of Sassari and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Sardinia was home to the first blue zone, identified more than 25 years ago. Bolotana sits in the Marghine mountains, about 70 miles (110km) from that original cluster of villages. Unlike those villages, Bolotana is relatively close to cities including Sassari and Alghero on the west coast, though its steep streets give residents unavoidable exercise, and most people still eat fruit and vegetables grown in their gardens.

Bolotana has six female centenarians. Giovanna Marras, 101, is the third eldest after Tonia Giglio and Maddalena Falchi, both 102. Her sister Mariangela, 99, is expected to reach 100 in 2027. Two other women are expected to reach the milestone by the end of this year, and two more in 2027. The last male centenarian, Giovanni Madau, died in July, a few months short of his 102nd birthday.

Giovanna excelled at school before moving to Cagliari, the capital of the Italian island, at 18 to train as a seamstress. The sisters ran a successful tailoring business in Bolotana and travelled the world after retirement. Neither married. “Someone did come to the house and ask my parents for my hand in marriage,” Giovanna said. “I told them to tell him to go away – I mean, a woman should at least know her future husband.” Mariangela said: “I didn’t want to get married … I walk my own path, I don’t need support.”

Tore Pedde, president of the cultural association Orminas, searched demographic archives, including records of centenarians born in the village who had moved overseas. Records of people born in Bolotana between 1900 and 1925 showed that 38 lived beyond 100, putting their longevity rate 57% higher than the Italian national average. Pedde said that until the early 1900s men significantly outnumbered women among the elderly, but from the early 20th century women began to outnumber men, and female centenarians later came to far exceed male ones.

Scientists behind the study are tracing family trees for genetic clues to Bolotana’s female longevity and exploring diet, physical activity and social connections. Women are already known to live longer for biological reasons, but the study focuses on why longevity specifically affects women in this village. Giovanni Mario Pes, who led the study and is a co-creator of the blue zone concept, said: “What’s special here is that for the first time we’ve identified an area where women live to a great age, whereas the original blue zone was predominantly male. We therefore need to explain why longevity specifically affects women here.”

A striking characteristic of Bolotana’s female centenarians is their independence. The Marras sisters still cook for themselves, eating a varied but clean diet without forsaking meat, cheese or wine. Mariangela does the shopping, which entails a walk down a hilly street and back. Filomena Scarpa, a former language teacher who turned 100 in January, began learning German in her 90s and was a voracious reader before a problem with her left eye started to hinder her. “It saddens me not to be able to read with the same level of consistency,” she said. She goes to a personal trainer twice a week. “Because I can’t sit around all day.”

Scarpa, who has two sons, is a childhood friend of Falchi, who now lives with her daughter about an hour away in Oristana. The pair speak often. Falchi is known in Bolotana for smoking heavily. “I told her to quit because it’s not good for her health,” Scarpa said. “But she said: ‘It hasn’t got me so far, so I shall carry on.’”