Pietrino Culurgioni celebrated his special birthday yesterday at his ancient home in Spartivento. He was visited by relatives, Teulada Mayor Angelo Milia, and friends. At 108, Pietrino is Sardinia's oldest grandfather, the longest-lived person, and one of the oldest in Italy.
Longevity
The old goatherd represents the class of dairy farmers who were the recent past of Teulada, Domus de Maria, and Sant'Anna Arresi. These villages were home to the largest sheep farms, whose legacy can be measured in terms of longevity, thanks in part to the contribution of the Culurgioni family, who arrived in Teulada in the late 1600s and have always been involved in goat farming. Among his brothers and cousins, Tziu Pietrino had dozens of people over 95 and over 90, who, along with other long-lived families, contributed to Teulada's recognition as a Blue Zone.
The life path of these rural workers has been studied by dieticians and geneticists, with particular attention to their age-old and constant diet, linked to the products of their own work and those of the territory, together with the work performed.
The memories
"As a child," Pietrino Culurgioni, still very lucid, recalled on many occasions, "I had the task of looking after the newborn goats, recognizing them, accustoming my ears to their bleating, having each one breastfed by the right mother, and following the example of the work and life of the goats."
Around the age of 12 or 13, the new kids were entrusted to him to pasture. "There were 120 or 130 of them, but in some years we raised up to 200," he recalls. "I led them to pasture and watched over them, cutting the tall branches of the wild olive trees because they couldn't reach the more tender shoots. Many winter nights I slept in the field with the kids and then with the goats under the rocks, sheltered by the stones of the nuraghi, because it wouldn't pull the cattle out of the fields. All the cheese was collected from the families of Carloforte who lived in Teulada. On the plain, the orchards were well cared for; everything was produced there. Sowing wheat yielded double that of other places."
