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No light, no electricity, no hot water – according to Fabrizio Cardinali, he has lived completely without electricity for half a century.
The 72-year-old is probably one of the few people in Europe who don't have to worry about rising energy costs.
Reuters news agency visited the Italian at his stone farmhouse in the Verdiccio vineyards in the east of the country.
When he arrived there 36 years ago, there would have been the possibility of an electricity connection, but he decided against it, says the self-supporter.
Fabrizio Cardinali, self-sufficient:
»I wasn't interested in being part of the world as it was then.
So I left everything - family, university, friends, the sports team - and went in a completely different direction, which is where I am today.
I renounce everything that could harm me, my fellow human beings and the environment.«
Cardinali used to live all alone.
He now has two roommates, a rooster, three chickens and a cat.
He calls the community »the tribe of harmonious walnuts«.
Fabrizio Cardinali, self-sufficient:
»Being self-sufficient is a very difficult thing.
It takes a lot of people: willing, strong, young and so on.
We try to do what is possible.
We are self-sufficient with olive oil, honey, fruit and vegetables, but we buy in our grains and legumes.«
The community grows fruit, vegetables and olives themselves.
If possible, they exchange excess products for everything they need.
The neighbors even give them old frying oil for their lamps, says Cardinali.
The 72-year-old cooks with his roommates Agnese and Andrea on the wood-burning stove in their kitchen, and they use it to heat the house in winter.
Agnese, roommate:
»I feel privileged because I have the freedom to choose my freedom, even to live without electricity and gas.«
From time to time, however, Cardinali also wanders into the nearest town to have a coffee with the locals or to see a doctor.
If he had his way, more people would live like him – and the first thing they would do would be to throw away their smartphones.
Giving up is not masochistic, he says.
Rather, he gives up something in order to get something else that is much more important - his freedom.
