Sicily's Caltabellotta Joins The Elite 5 Blue Zones: Longevity Lessons From The Region

The search for longevity has taken scientists around the world, to islands, mountains and remote villages where people routinely live into their 90s and beyond. Over the last two decades, as a result of this research, scientists have been able to identify five such Blue Zones. These so-called Blue Zones occupy the spotlight because their residents don't merely live longer, they age well. Historically the recognized five include Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), Ikaria (Greece), Nicoya (Costa Rica) and Loma Linda (USA). Now, compelling new research suggests that a remote mountain town in Sicily, Caltabellotta, may be the sixth or emerging Blue Zone.

According to a 2025 study published in the Journal of Ageing and Longevity, the ratio of people aged 90+ in Caltabellotta is nearly three times the national Italian average. This opens fresh questions: What exactly are the lifestyle, environmental and social habits driving this exceptional longevity, and what can the rest of us learn from them? Let's explore the Italian newcomer zone, revisit the traits of the established Blue Zones, and uncover practical lessons you can apply in your own life today.

The New Blue Zone: Caltabellotta (Sicily)

Caltabellotta is a small mountain town in Sicily's Sicani Mountains (altitude around 949m, population around 3,000) where researchers identified a high 90+/60+ ratio, rising from 3.6% to 14% in early 20th-century birth-cohorts. This longevity hotspot shares many features with classical Blue Zones, like low pollution, moderate altitude, agrarian lifestyle, family-oriented community and mineral-rich hard water. The study noted mineral levels (calcium and magnesium) in local groundwater and minimal urbanisation as potential contributors. The team highlighted five local habits worth emulating:

• Low chronic stress via slow-paced life, based around farming, seasonal rhythms, tight-knit social routines.
• Traditional Mediterranean diet, with abundant vegetables, legumes, whole grains, olive oil, modest fish/meat intake.
• Strong social bonds and community belonging, with features like emotional attachment to place, family involvement, inter-generational ties.
• Daily physical activity embedded in chores, walking hilly terrain, which refers not to dedicated exercise, but movement built into life.
• Natural environment with clean air, moderate altitude, rural setting, which translates tolower allostatic load, less pollution, more nature time.

What The Established Five Blue Zones Teach Us

• Sardinia (Italy): Particularly the Ogliastra region has one of the highest concentrations of male centenarians. Geography, goat-milk diet, strong social clubs (la nuraghe), and daily natural movement are key.
• Okinawa (Japan): Diet rich in sweet potato, tofu, sea-weed; strong ikigai (sense of purpose); high community engagement; and a ritual of moai (social support groups).
• Ikaria (Greece): Islanders nap after the midday meal, walk and garden daily, eat greens and beans, have low dementia rates and heart disease half the Greek average.
• Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica): Strong family bonds, plan de vida (life purpose), calcium-rich water, beans and fruit diet, and physically active older adults.
• Loma Linda (California, USA): Seventh-day Adventist community, plant-based diet, emphasis on rest, family, faith and moderate physical activity.

Common Threads Of Longevity

Researchers emphasise that it's not genetics alone, but environment combined with habits and community that build these long-lived populations. A 2025 review of Blue Zone longevity patterns concluded: reducing ultra-processed food, staying active, fostering social engagement and avoiding high pollution and urban stress can boost health span, or years lived in good health.

Applying The Blue Zones' Lessons In Your Life

• Adopt a mostly plant-based diet, emphasising beans and legumes, vegetables, whole grains and olive oil, the cornerstone of Blue Zone nutrition.
• Build natural movement into your day. Walk, garden, climb stairs, avoid all-sedentary work.
• Cultivate social rituals. Regular meals with family and friends, community groups, sense of place and belonging.
• Manage stress and pace. Slow down tech use, ensure rest, adopt hobbies, spend time in nature.
• Use clean, minimal-pollution environments where possible. Access green spaces, reduce exposure to urban stressors.
• Recognise the value of purpose. Many centenarians cite having a reason to wake up each morning as central to longevity.

The identification of Caltabellotta in Sicily as an emerging Blue Zone reinforces a timeless truth: How we live matters as much as how long we live. In an age of technological acceleration and urban stress, the simplicity of Mediterranean diet, movement embedded in life, strong community and nature immersion may hold the blueprint for healthier ageing. Whether you're in a city flat or rural home, adopting the essence of Blue Zone habits, one bean-rich plate, one stair-climb, one conversation, one sunset walk at a time, may help extend not just lifespan but health-span. Emerging or established, Blue Zones teach us the same message: Live well, with purpose, connection and nature.

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