I was up north in Piedmont, near Novara, and stopped for a quick espresso at a very special bar in a quiet village where winters are foggy and summers are sleepy. Tourists are a rare sight up there.
Nebbiuno, although an unknown place of barely 1,700 people, is now on the map for one particular resident: a bartender and bar owner who has been serving cappuccinos and coffees behind the same counter for the past 65 years. She is 99 years old.
Which means that Anna Possi, affectionately nicknamed “Renè” by locals, is Italy’s oldest bartender.
When I heard about her on TV, I was shocked. If you believe the Italian media, we have a national problem with young people not wanting to work. So I thought, well, if that’s true, then we might have something to learn from this indomitable lady.
The bar was nothing special. It’s one of those typical places that you find in almost all anonymous Italian villages. But as soon as I stepped inside, I could feel the energy radiating from the tiny old lady behind the counter, who greets all her customers with a warm smile.
Anna Possi opens her place at 7am sharp each morning. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Christmas, Easter or the middle of August. She has never once failed to open up.
“It just keeps me really busy. I never get bored,” she said. “I like to meet people and interact with them. I don’t know how long I will keep doing this job, but as long as my age and health allow it, I will never give up.”
As I watched her serve endless cappuccinos, espressos, ristrettos and latte macchiato, I just couldn’t help thinking what a sharp contrast she is to the common picture most people have of Italians, especially of the young. In the popular imagination, young Italians prefer to lazily sit at home, not doing anything, and aren’t even bothered or worried about finding a job. Well, if there is anyone out there complaining about the 9-to-5 dayshift and who can’t wait to retire, Anna is a living lesson to them.
This 99-year-old works 10 hours a day, is super happy and active even though she does it all alone, with no other staff helping her. After her husband passed away, hers is a solo job.
Anna proudly says the bar is like her home, her customers like family, and in return she feels gratified. That made me think about retirement – looking at Anna, it began to feel like a bit of a false promise. Coming to a halt surely can’t be the ultimate goal of existence.
Paolo, a 64-year-old regular customer who stops by Anna’s bar each morning for an espresso, tells me it’s like buying the morning paper. He just couldn’t live without Anna, and her bar.
“In small villages you lead a very simple life based on habits and this is my favourite daily one. I just feel at home here,” he says.
Anna has led a tough life, and she has no particular secret to longevity except eating well and working hard. She grew up in a tavern and she still remembers how, during the second world war, she would listen in silence to the footsteps of German soldiers entering her parents’ eatery for a coffee.
“Oh, I also like to surf the web in my spare time,” she says. “It keeps me young and feeds into my curiosity. There’s always something new I would like to try or experience. My rule number one is to look at life in an engaging way.”
I leave her bar, full of optimism. On my way out, I spot a group of teenagers sitting on a brick wall in silence, smoking cigarettes as if that were their main task in life. And I must admit, the optimism dimmed a little.
Silvia Marchetti is a Rome-based freelance reporter
