Fabrizio Cardinali, 72, does not crave the bright city lights.
Indeed he has no use for electricity and for more than half a century has lived entirely off the grid.
That makes him one of the few people in Europe unconcerned about rising energy costs this winter.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali lights his wooden cooker at home.
Cardinali, whose long white beard makes him look like Karl Marx, the poet Walt Whitman or a slimmed-down Santa Claus, lives in a stone farmhouse in the hills of the Verdicchio wine country near Ancona, on Italy’s eastern Adriatic coast.
By choice, he has no electricity, no gas, and no indoor plumbing.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali sits on the kitchen stairs at home.
“I was not interested in being part of the world as it was going. So I left everything - family, university, friends, the sports team, and set off in a completely different direction,” he said, sitting in the kitchen and wearing patched corduroy trousers.
“Giving something up is not masochistic. You give something up to obtain something else that is more important,” he said.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali harvests olives from the trees outside his house.
In the past he has lived entirely alone.
Right now, he has two house mates, a rooster, three chickens and a cat in a community he calls “The Tribe of the Harmonious Walnuts”.
Visitors seeking Cardinali and his friends are told by locals in the nearest town to take the narrow dirt path that starts next to an oak tree flying a multi-coloured peace flag.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali and his currents house mates, Agnese, 35, and Andrea, 46, have lunch together.
Cardinali and his house mates, who gave their names only as Agnese and Andrea, rely on a wood-burning stove for cooking and warmth, and read by lamps fuelled with used cooking oil donated by neighbours.
“I feel privileged to have the freedom to choose my freedom,” said Agnese, 35, who moved in two years ago. Andrea, 46, spends the week there but goes home to Macerata, about 50 km (31 miles) away, each weekend to look after his mother.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Agnese prepares lunch in the wooden kitchen.
The “harmonious walnuts” grow fruit and vegetables, olives to produce olive oil, and keep bees for honey. A local cooperative sells them sacks of legumes, cereals and wheat, which they grind to make their own bread.
When possible, they trade any surplus production for anything they need.
Although some people have dubbed him “the Hermit of Cupramontana,” Cardinali says he is not a hermit.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali is seen in an old picture from when he was a Carabiniere (paramilitary police).
Instead, he believes life is best lived in small communities.
His first piece of advice for anyone tempted to follow his example is: “Throw away your so-called smart phone.”
Story
Cardinali occasionally travels short distances to visit friends, take olives to a stone press to make oil, and walks or hitch-hikes to the nearest town to have a coffee with locals or visit the doctor.
“I’ve been living this way for about 51 years and I have never regretted it. For sure, there have been difficulties, but they never made me think that I made the wrong choice or thrown it all away,” he said. “Absolutely not.”
(Photography by Yara Nardi; Reporting by Matteo Berlenga; Writing by Philip Pullella; Photo editing by Kezia Levitas and Marta Montana Gomez; Text editing by Barbara Lewis; Layout by Marta Montana Gomez)
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Slideshow
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali carries a basket for the olive harvest.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali climbs a tree to harvest olives.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali works in the vegetable garden outside his house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali picks pumpkin flowers in the vegetable garden outside his house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali, washes pumpkin flowers he picked from his vegetable garden.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali saves the water he previously used to wash vegetables.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Bottle gourds are seen hanging from Cardinali's chicken pen outside his house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali checks the chicken pen outside his house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali's home is seen between the trees.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali checks the mailbox at his home.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali, Agnese and Andrea talk at Cardinali’s house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Andrea picks the olives fallen from the trees at Cardinali's house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali combs his beard in the mirror at home.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali, Agnese and Andrea talk to a worker at the oil mill.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali places wood in a box at home.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali sets the table for lunch.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali brings a pot to prepare lunch on the wooden cooker at home.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Agnese grinds the grain using an hand millstone.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Agnese sifts the grain at Cardinali’s house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali lights an oil lamp at his home.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali points at himself in an old photo from when he played volleyball.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali reads a book at home.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Figs left to dry are seen on a table at Cardinali's house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali undresses to bathe with water he heated up on the wooden cooker.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Cardinali prepares the tent to sleep outside his house.
. Cupramontana, Italy. Reuters/Yara Nardi
Agnese makes sourdough bread at Cardinali's house.