In 1712, Domenica Contu was born in Arzana. He died in 1815, when he was 103 years old. Research on the municipal historical archives confirms that already in the 18th century people lived in Ogliastra for more than a hundred years .

One of Signora Domenica's secrets, according to the results of the research, would have been the assiduous consumption of cheese. So the Blue Zone, one of the five on the planet, has its roots in a distant era. Some other evidence on centenarians who lived between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the researchers would also have found in Villagrande and Ilbono .

The certificates of Domenica Contu, of whom 83 were descendants, are not an isolated fact. In 1783, still in Arzana, Giuseppe Fois was born, who was 104 and a half years old when he died in 1888. Another trace of longevity in distant times is that which leads back to Damiana Stochino, born in 1800 and died in 1901 .

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