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According to ISTAT, Italy's national statistics bureau, there are more than 22,000 Italians between the ages of 100 and 104. While many of them have long retired, there is one who refuses to stop working. Anna Possi is a 100-year-old barista—the oldest in Italy, and likely in all of Europe. For her, working at a cafe is the source of her vitality.
Known as Nonna Anna (translated from Italian to Grandma Anna), Possi owns Bar Centrale in Nebbiuno, which she opened 1958. She usually works 12-hour shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and doesn't take days off. The centenarian boasts that she has worked every day for 65 years, and the last vacation she took was in the 1950s. “I’m always working—Sundays, Easter, Christmas. I’m never on holiday,” Possi told The Guardian.
Possi says she likes her job and her brain has to work since she's surrounded by people, which keeps her young. To her, the secret of her longevity is the company of others and doing something she loves. Besides that, there's no big secret that keeps her going—Possi eats little and follows her daily routine. Other than taking a pill to control her blood pressure, she says that she's in great shape and can do many things the way a 60-year-old would.
Beyond the cafe's spectacular vistas overlooking Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, it's Possi's dedication and the apple pie she sells on Sundays that have made Bar Centrale a tourist attraction. “People come to meet me, because they find it impossible to believe that I’m still working,” Possi says. “When they leave, they leave happy and recharged—I don’t know what it is that I’ve transmitted.” Inside the cafe, a sign reads: “La barista più longeva d’Italia” (“the oldest barista in Italy”), alongside a picture of Possi. The experienced barista also recently received the honorary title of Commander of the Republic from the Italian government.
Since her husbands's death in 1974, Possi has devoted her life to her cafe and her kids—the things that bring her the most joy in life. She says that the idea of not working makes her melancholic. “I want to live, to be among people,” she explains. And as such, she wants to keep working as long as her health allows her to. “Why should I stop? My bar is so much more than work for me. It’s my life,” Possi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. For now, Possi hopes to work at least until she's 105, saying, “And then we'll see what god wants.”
This is Anna Possi, a 100-year-old barista considered to be oldest in Italy, if not all of Europe.
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She usually works 12-hour shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.—and she doesn’t take any days off!
Possi says she has worked every single day for 65 years.
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For now, she hopes to work at least until she’s 105, saying, “And then we’ll see what God wants.”
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Watch Possi in action in the video below.
Sources: ‘I’m always working’: Italy’s centenarian barista on her longevity; DW Euromaxx on Instagram; Centenarians increased by 30% in Italy over the past decade; 100 years old and serving coffee 365 days a year, why Italy’s oldest barista won’t retire
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