Amalia Esposito, 102 years old
The time of the Earth

Amalia Esposito was born in Centola on January 5, 1917. Daughter of a seamstress and midwife and a father working the land, for much of her life she was a peasant. She remembers how they spent their days digging, raising animals and singing. In her account she always uses the plural “we worked the land, sang, cared for animals”, as if to underline that community in the rural world wins over individuality.

Rural lunch consisted of bread and cheese, while at night they often ate pasta or soup. Sometimes pasta and beans. Meat – red meat – was only consumed if they had enough money to buy it; alternatively, they killed one of the hens that most of the rural population of Cilento in the first half of the twentieth century possessed.

Mother of five children, the life of Amalia was made of working outside and inside her home. But she never forgot, despite a busy life, to help others, especially when misery struck indiscriminately.

The husband of Amalia had a vineyard to make country red wine, which was consumed daily. Amalia is the clearest proof that good habits last, as she is 102 and still drinks a glass a day!