Anna Possi - bar owner

Centenarian still serving coffee 365 days a year

Anna Possi has been serving her customers at
the Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno for 67 years 

Anna Possi, the bar owner who in 2024 attracted the world’s media to her door when she celebrated her 100th birthday by opening for business as usual, was born on this day in 1924 in Vezzo in Piedmont.

Possi owns and manages the Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno, a village overlooking picturesque Lago Maggiore just a few kilometres from her place of birth. She has been brewing and serving coffee to visitors and regular customers there since the bar opened on May 1, 1958, and has been in sole charge since her husband, Renato, died in 1974.

She is known as the oldest bartender in Italy - perhaps in Europe - and proudly advertises her status with a sign on the wall outside the bar’s entrance on Via Torino, which reads “Qui si trova la barista più longeva d'Italia” - “Here you will find the longest-serving bartender in Italy”.

Opening even on Easter Sunday and Christmas Day, she wakes at 5.50am, eats a light breakfast while catching up with the news on the internet, and raises the shutters at 7am to be ready for her earliest customers, remaining open until 7-7.30pm.

On warm, summer evenings, she will stay open as late as 9.30pm, allowing her clientele to enjoy the splendid views across the lake on offer from her garden tables.

To mark her 100th birthday, she was awarded the honorary title of Commander of the Republic of Italy, yet has no plans to retire as long as she retains the gift of good health. She looks after her wellbeing by eating sparsely, taking a half-hour walk every evening and believes that her daily interaction with customers is the key to her sprightliness.

Universally known among her regular customers as Nonna Anna - or Anna Renè after her late husband - she makes few concessions to her advancing years apart from accepting some help from her daughter, Cristina, who lives with her in the rooms above the bar and works by day across the road at the local Municipale, the council offices.

Anna's unique status is proudly advertised
on a sign outside the Bar Centrale

Anna was born into the catering business. Her parents ran a guesthouse and trattoria at Vezzo, another hillside village just 10km (six miles) from Nebbiuno. She attended school and went to teacher training college but willingly helped out in the family business whenever she could, whether assisting in the kitchen or waiting at table.

During World War Two, she spent hours stirring a huge pot of polenta, which was given to partisans hiding from the occupying German army.

As a young woman, she moved first to Novara, the second largest city in Piedmont about 40km (25 miles) to the south, and then to Genoa, the coastal city in Liguria, working in bars and restaurants before returning home to buy the bar in Nebbiuno, with Renato. 

The bar’s peak years, according to Anna, were from the 1960s through to the 1980s. 

At first, equipped with pinball machines, a football table and a jukebox, and one of the first to offer video games, the Bar Centrale was a trendy meeting place for young people, who would spend their afternoons playing games and listening to hits.

Its clientele included footballers Gianni Rivera and Fulvio Collovati, who had homes nearby while playing for AC Milan, and even Angelo Moratti, the oil tycoon who owned Inter Milan from 1955 to 1968 and often visited the area.

Today’s customers have a different profile, made up mainly of pensioners from the village and of curious visitors attracted by Anna’s unique claim to fame. The jukebox, meanwhile, has made way for a book stand, where customers can exchange unwanted titles for books they want to read. Yet business remains brisk.

Anna has hinted that she may wind down, if not step aside completely, when Cristina retires from her job at the Municipale, perhaps breaking the habit of the last 50 years or so by actually taking a holiday. Until then, though, the Bar Centrale’s shutters will continue to open at 7am sharp, every day.

The skyline of Novara is dominated by the huge
cupola of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio

Travel tip:

Novara, where Anna Possi worked as a young woman, is the second biggest city in the Piedmont region after Turin. It is situated nearer to Milan than Turin, the Lombardy capital being around 50km (31 miles) east of Novara, while Turin is almost 100km (62 miles) to the southwest. Founded by the Romans, Novara was later ruled by the Visconti and Sforza families. In the 18th century it was controlled by the House of Savoy, who lost it to the Austrians in the 1849 Battle of Novara. This led to the abdication of Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard state and is seen as the beginning of the Italian unification movement.  The most imposing building in Novara is the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, which has a 121-metre high cupola designed by Alessandro Antonelli, the creator of Turin’s similarly towering Mole Antonelliana. Novara’s duomo, the cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, is the city’s most important church. It is built where the temple of Jupiter stood in Roman times, opposite the oldest remaining building in Novara, the Battistero. Also worth seeing is the Broletto, a medieval architectural complex made up of four historic buildings built in different eras, around a central courtyard. 

Find hotels in Novara with Expedia

Nebbiuno's hillside location offers visitors a
beautiful view over Lago Maggiore

Travel tip:

Vezzo and Nebbiuno, the two villages that have been central to Anna Possi’s life, both lie in the scenic Vergante area of Piedmont, on the western side of Lake Maggiore, which forms a natural border with the neighbouring Lombardy region.  Hilly terrain, lush forests and panoramic lake views are characteristic of the area, which contains notable peaks in Monte Cornaggia and Monte Toriggia, both of which climb to beyond 900m (2,950ft), the area being bordered in the west by Monte Mottarone, which reaches 1,492m (4,895ft) above sea level, part of the Alpi Biellesi e Cusiane. The Vergante area also includes the section of Lake Maggiore that contains three of the four Borromean Islands - Isola Madre, Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatori. The area offers attractions all year round, including trekking along well-maintained paths in the summer months, gastronomic tours against the backdrop of autumn colours to enjoy dishes combining the products of the forest and the lake, skiing in the winter and a kaleidoscope of spring colours from an abundance of azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons.

Book accommodation in the Vergante area with Hotels.com

More reading:

How Antonio Todde became the oldest living man in the world

The World War One survivor who lived to be 110

The Inter Milan fan who for 10 months was Europe’s oldest living person

Also on this day:

1625: The death of portrait painter Sofonisba Anguissola 

1892: The birth of racing driver Tazio Nuvolari

1974: The birth of world champion ice dancer Maurizio Margaglio

1975: Doctor and scientist Giuseppe Moscati made a saint

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Antonio Todde - supercentenarian

Sardinian shepherd holds record as oldest Italian in history

Antonio Todde attributed his longevity to long walks
and a daily glass of local red wine

Antonio Todde, who was the oldest living man in the world before he died at the age of 112 years 346 days in 2002 and remains the oldest Italian man in history, was born on this day in 1889 in Tiana, a mountain village in Sardinia.

There are 19 other Italians who have attained a higher age, but all are women. Maria Giuseppa Robucci, from Apulia, is still living at the age of 115 years 307 days but would need to survive a further year and 195 days to match Emma Morano, from Piedmont, who died in 2017 aged 117 years 137 days as the oldest Italian of all time.

Todde was the world’s most senior male centenarian from the death of the American John Painter on March 1, 2001 until his own death 10 months later.

He was born to a poor shepherd family in Tiana, about 140km (87 miles) north of Cagliari in the Gennargentu mountains, about 55km (34 miles) southwest of the provincial capital, Nuoro.

The area historically has a high number of centenarians and there was longevity in Todde’s family. His father Francesco lived to be 90 years old, and his mother Francesca 98. His sister Maria Agostina - one of 11 siblings - was still alive at the age of 97 at the time of his death and herself lived to be 102.

Emma Morano, pictured at 21, lived to be 117,
as the oldest Italian in history

Born the same year as the Eiffel Tower was completed, Todde believed that the secret of his long life was a daily glass of locally-produced red wine, made by his grandson on the same rocky hills on which, as a shepherd, he spent almost all his life.

He had a simple diet based on pasta, vegetable soup, red meat and cheese, took regular long walks and relaxed by playing cards with his friends.

He rarely suffered ill health and passed away in his sleep, just a few hours after complaining that he had no appetite.

Todde left Sardinia only to fight in the First World War, in which he suffered an injured shoulder as a result of a grenade explosion.

In 1920, he married Maria Antonia, then aged 25, and they had four daughters and a son. She died in 1990, aged 95.

Todde's life and those of his fellow islanders was the focus of a scientific project, called Akea, into ageing and longevity, which was prompted by the high number of Sardinia's 1.6 million population who become centenarians.

Some 135 people per million on the island live to see their 100th birthday, compared with the western average of 75.

Akea is an acronym for "A Kent'Annos" - a Sardinian traditional greeting which means "a hundred years". It grew from studies carried out since 1997 by the team of Professor Luca Deiana, head of the biochemistry clinic, University of Sassari. The study took into account genetic, dietary and lifestyle factors.

Antonio Todde worked as a shepherd in the rugged
Gennargentu mountains of central Sardinia

Travel tip:

The village of Tiana is located on the western slopes of the Gennargentu massif, almost at the geographical centre of Sardinia, surrounded by mountains climbing to more than 1,000m (3,280ft). The village traditionally produced a woolen fabric called orbace, obtained from spinning wool and used to make winter clothes. Narrow streets, houses huddled together and passages covered by arches characterize the historical centre of the village.  A museum of industrial archaeology in the locality of Gusagu includes Sa Cracchera de tziu Bellu, the last active fulling-mill on the island, and one of only a few in Europe. Fulling is a process aimed at eliminating oil, dirt and other impurities from wool and making it thicker.

Nuoro is a city of narrow streets and
traditional stone houses

Travel tip:

Nuoro is a city in eastern central Sardinia of about 36,000 people, the sixth largest on the island, characterised by cobbled streets lined with traditional stone houses.  Situated on the slopes of Monte Ortobene, it is the birthplace of several renowned writers, poets, painters, and sculptors, including Grazia Deledda, the only Italian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose birthplace is one of the city’s many museums. As a cultural centre, Nuoro is sometimes called the Athens of Sardinia.

More reading:

Maria Radaelli - the Inter fan who for 10 months was the oldest living person in Europe

Lazzaro Ponticelli, the First World War veteran who became world's oldest living Italian

Francesco Chiarello: fought in two world wars, lived to be 109

Also on this day:

1506: The founding of the Papal Swiss Guard

1893: The birth of gang boss Francesco Ioele, also known as Frankie Yale

2005: The death of First World War veteran Carlo Orelli, aged 110


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