Sardinia is renowned for its magnificent sea, its ivory-white sandy beaches, and its coasts that conceal secret coves, but there is more to it. We went to visit that inland corner of Sardinia, perched between Ogliastra and Barbagia, also known as the Blue Zone, famous worldwide in the scientific community because – as in only a few other places on the planet – here people live longer and the number of centenarians exceeds the world average.
We went there to try to uncover the secret of their longevity, we met some of the elders living in the area, and we had them tell us their long-life secret.
We retraced the itinerary drawn for us by Progetto Happiness, founded by Giuseppe Bertuccio D’Angelo, which travels around the world in search of happiness and shares its experiences through reportage. Did we come back victorious? Let’s find out.
Our on-the-road journey
We traversed the SS198 State Road from Seui to Lanusei as it winds inland and connects the south of Sarcidano to the island’s eastern coast, cutting through the heart of Barbagia. It is a road much loved by motorcyclists for its countless hairpin turns and the spectacular wild landscapes it crosses. We did it aboard a Ford Explorer, the best electric SUV for this kind of adventure (with 340 HP, the AWD model accelerates to 100 km/h in 5.3 seconds and can tow up to 1,200 kg thanks to its continuous electric propulsion).
After all, this SUV has already entered history thanks to a certain Lexie Alford, the first person to circumnavigate the globe aboard an electric vehicle, traversing six continents, 27 countries and more than 30,000 km using only electricity). Besides being a zero-emission car, thus sustainable for the pristine places we crossed, it also has a range of more than 600 km on a single charge, essential because charging stations in this area are few and (perhaps) only in small towns (in any case, rapid charging takes less than half an hour, the time to take a stroll around the town and enjoy a coffee).
We then connected our smartphone wirelessly to the gigantic SYNC Move screen to sync the road map and contacts – it works very well, though it’s good to know that, once you reach the heart of the territory, there isn’t much signal – strapped in, we set off on the winding roads (which at some point we stopped counting).
Gairo Vecchio
One of the first villages encountered along the SS198 is Gairo Vecchio. We cannot really speak of a proper settlement, as it is a ghost town, indeed the most famous in Sardinia. It is fully skirted (the cliff is on the other side), and given the sparse traffic here, silence reigns supreme. We find ourselves at 520 meters above the Rio Pardu. It was gradually abandoned after a severe flood in 1951.
The inhabitants moved down to the valley, forming three other small villages: Gairo Sant’Elena, Gairo Taquisara and Gairo Cardedu. The first lies just a few meters above the old town. The second, located a few kilometers away, is a charming village of only 300 inhabitants and is famous for being one of the stops of Sardinia’s Green Train, which in summer passes through some of these towns (and is the alternative to driving if you want to visit these places). Here runs the Arbatax – Gairo Taquisara line. The third village is the closest to the sea. But it is Gairo Vecchio, the town that no longer exists, that draws the attention of travelers who love routes off the typical Sardinia postcard path. To visit it, you simply take a few hairpin bends and, on the right, you can park and walk through the alleys, steps, and ruined pink and blue-walled buildings (perfect for Urbex enthusiasts).
Ussassai
We get back in the car, set off again, and tackle another stretch of twists for about 24 km. Here the Mediterranean scrub, myrtle trees, and prickly pears make way for holm oaks, oaks, and the so-called Tacchi – rock outcrops of limestone that make the landscape particularly wild. At a certain point we pass through the town of Ussassai, the smallest in the Barbagia di Seùlo, with fewer than 500 inhabitants. Here we have already climbed to an altitude of 710 meters, but the town stretches upward and the last houses climb up to around a thousand meters. This too is a stop on the Green Train (currently the Mandas-Arbatax line is under maintenance). If the town isn’t the most characteristic of Sardinia, this area still deserves a trip. Around here you can admire several nuraghi (Nuraghe S’enna and S’omini and Nuraghe Coccoronis) and streams, including the beautiful emerald-blue natural pools along the Rio San Girolamo and the Cascate Lequarci.
Seui
About fifteen kilometers further (and a fair number of bends) we reach the next settlement: Seui. This mountain village (810 m above sea level) is famous for its historic center revitalized in recent years, which definitely warrants a stop. In the Palazzina Liberty, archeological finds from the area and various historical testimonies are on display. In the Galleria Civica, inside the municipal palace, there are significant works, including paintings by the Spagnoletto, a Caravaggist follower of Merisi’s style. Casa Farcì tells the story, culture, and traditions of the area. Sa Omu de sa Maja hosts collections dedicated to magical and pre-Christian traditions of Barbagia, and finally the Spanish Prison dating to the 17th century, but used until the 1970s, recounts life and justice stories that have shaped this community for centuries.
Seui is also the starting point for several excursions, such as to the Montarbu Nature Reserve or to the Nuraghe Ardasai, built on a rocky outcrop at 1,015 meters above sea level, with the remains of a village of circular huts overlooking Monte Tonneri.
Seùlo
About twenty kilometers (and as many hairpins) later we reach Seùlo. In the meantime, in the car we’ve passed near the San Valentino Waterfall in Sadali and the Su Stampu de su Turrunu, the Is Janas Cave, the old San Sebastiano – Corongiu mine, the natural pools Su Stampu de su Túrrunu, and the Sa Stiddiosa pond. But above all, the Domus de Janas, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2025.
In Seùlo we find ourselves in the heart of the Blue Zone of Sardinia, so much so that it is nicknamed the “village of centenarians” (even if, in truth, it is not the only one in Sardinia). We are in the middle of Barbagia. The village itself gives its name to this area of central-southern Sardinia, called the Barbagia di Seùlo. Amid the mountains, at the feet of Monte Perdèdu (1,400 meters), which the Flumendosa River separates from the Gennargentu, the massif cloaked in centuries-old forests, where the island’s highest peaks rise, it feels like stepping into a magical landscape, made of woods and forests – such as the Addolì forest, inhabited since the prehistoric era -, limestone cliffs, natural dolmens (like s’Arcu ‘e su cuaddu), springs, ponds (like Su Stampu ‘e Su Turrunu), rapids and waterfalls (such as Cascate Sa Stiddiosa and Piscina ‘e Licona). With the return of warm weather, the forest roses bloom, flowers typical of the Gennargentu, coloring the steep slopes of Perdèdu in red and yellow, which is why Seùlo is also called the village of s’orrosa ‘e padenti.
A peaceful place with an ancient history, dating back to the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. In fact, all around Seùlo there are nuraghi (such as Su Nuraxeddu and Su Nuraxi ‘e Pauli) and the nuragic village of Ticci, as well as the famous Domus de Janas with the Giants’ tombs. In this extremely remote zone, in contact with a marvelous, almost primordial nature, far from civilization, smog, and chaos, where life is based on pastures and cultivated fields, despite a harsh and almost hostile landscape, and seasonal produce, they have discovered the elixir of long life.
The Blue Zone of Sardinia
In central-southern Sardinia, and particularly in some villages – all at the foot of the Gennargentu – a number of people (especially women) live well into their hundreds. This region of Italy is one of the five Blue Zones in the world (the others being Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Ikaria in Greece, and Loma Linda in California) and is home to the highest concentration of centenarians worldwide (though, according to experts who study longevity in Sardinia, not all Blue Zones around the world have the features necessary for this primacy).
In this region, five municipalities are certified as home to centenarians. Seùlo is one, but there are also Baunei (where the greatest number of inhabitants above a hundred lives), Urzulei, where the oldest, Battistina Secci, reached 102, Villagrande, and Talana. Then there are those not yet certified, such as Tonara, from which comes Antonietta Contiero, born in 1925, who revealed her secret of long life: “I eat soup with potatoes or polenta, I walk every day, I work in the fields and I sleep.” Could that really be the magic formula to surpass a hundred? We discussed it with several experts encountered during the presentation of the docufilm produced by Progetto Happiness.
Claudia Porcu, the creator of the Blue Zone project here in Sardinia, and the daughter of a centenarian (she herself looks twenty years younger), explained what the Blue Zones are and why they are called that. “The first demographic study based on municipal records in Italy dates back to 1866. On the basis of birth and death dates, there is an algorithm that yields the longevity index, and in our area it is higher than in other municipalities around the world. A comprehensive demographic study of the entire citizenry showed that the population is long-lived: the octogenarians, even if not centenarians, are more numerous and healthier. I proposed this project to Dr. Michel Poulain (one of the discoverers of the Blue Zones in the 1990s, ndr), and to Professor Gianni Pes (a physician whose research has been driven by a personal interest in the exceptional longevity of his own family, ndr).”
The name Blue Zone has a very practical origin, Porcu explained: at the time, Sardinia’s map was drawn by hand. Each time a municipality was identified where the percentage of centenarians exceeded the threshold, a blue dot was placed. After five months of work, the mountain part of the Ogliastra map bore real blue “clouds.” And with the publication of the first scientific article, those areas were called Blue Zones, precisely in homage to that working method. The same Professor Pes, for his own research, traversed Sardinia following the blue dots. “The first certified municipality was Villagrande,” Porcu explains, “so I suggested carrying out a study in other municipalities as well.”
Dr. Marisella Lara, who works in the Ogliastra area and treats several elderly residents and centenarians in the region, explained that many of those in their nineties retain extraordinary mental clarity, stay active, read books, cultivate interests, and maintain independence (often preferring to live at home rather than be cared for or placed in institutions). The elderly are integrated into family life, play with their grandchildren, maintain a role of authority and decision-making, and do not experience the isolation or marginalization typical of urban settings. Lara thus identifies psychological resilience as the key factor for these populations. “The current generation of centenarians grew up with a sober diet and without excess,” the doctor said, “and was born before the widespread availability of industrial and ultra-processed foods. Here, nutrition still follows natural seasonality thanks to the almost universal presence of home gardens. Local, zero-kilometer products are consumed: locally caught fresh fish, meat from local farms, dairy and goat milk (very digestible), cheeses, local legumes, and home-baked bread with non-industrial ancient grains. Currently, a comparative study on epigenetics and the microbiota is underway among the area’s youth versus urban youths to understand how lifestyle, local food, and environment influence the genetic makeup. The region is a frequent destination for researchers and university students (even from abroad, for example from the United States) to study local longevity.”
Over the years, technology has also aided these studies. Giuseppe Leda, native of Ales (Oristano) and a scholar of genetics and genealogies of Sardinian rural communities since 2013, moved to Seùlo on behalf of the municipal administration, eventually reconstructing the entire genealogical and demographic web of the last four centuries through two cross-referenced databases (based on parish and municipal registers). This allowed him to trace and verify immediate kinship ties among local residents. Leda argues that prolonged consanguinity and geographic isolation in Sardinia (the genetic “bottleneck” phenomenon) “acted in two ways: a positive effect, the so-called ‘Factor C,’ which allowed the transmission and preservation of genes favorable to longevity (worth about 20% of the reason we live longer here), and a negative effect that increased the incidence of undesirable physical traits, high-altitude deafness, and, above all, autoimmune diseases.”
In short, the secret of longevity lies in the combination of several factors, some of which – genetics – we cannot intervene in, but others – diet, seasonality, healthy living, and movement – we can. Add to all this a territory inhabited for millennia despite its roughness, now easily accessible by taking a beautiful road trip like the one we did.
