In Bolotana, a village of 2,266 people in Sardinia's Marghine mountains, the faces of women's longevity are two sisters who never married: Giovanna Marras, 101, and Mariangela, 99. A centenarian study published last week in Frontiers in Aging found that 13.8% of Bolotana women who reach the age of 70 live to 100, placing the village second in the world after Hong Kong. The sisters, both lively, are the human side of that statistic.

Two sisters, one path of their own

Giovanna left school with top marks and moved to Cagliari, the capital of the Italian island, at 18 to train as a seamstress. The sisters later ran a tailoring business in Bolotana and, after retiring, travelled the world.

Giovanna turned down at least one proposal on her own terms. "I told them to tell him to go away – I mean, a woman should at least know her future husband," she said.

Mariangela needed no suitor to refuse. "I didn't want to get married … I walk my own path, I don't need support," she said.

A village full of women past 100

The sisters are not outliers in the Sardinian village. Bolotana counts six female centenarians today, led by Tonia Giglio and Maddalena Falchi, both 102, with Giovanna Marras third eldest. Before this year ends, the village expects two more women to reach their 100th birthdays, and the cohort will grow by another two in 2027 - Mariangela among them.

The record of the 1900–1925 birth cohorts explains the numbers:

• •38 people born in Bolotana in that period lived beyond 100
• •that is a longevity rate 57% higher than the Italian national average
• •the findings emerged after Tore Pedde, president of the cultural association Orminas, combed the demographic archives, even locating villagers born there who had long since moved overseas

Men fell behind

The balance between the sexes has reversed. Tore Pedde said that men were the majority among Bolotana's elderly until the early 1900s, after which the trend turned and female centenarians came to outnumber them.

Bolotana's last male centenarian, Giovanni Madau, died in July, a few months short of his 102nd birthday.

How the sisters still live

Independence continues into the sisters' second century. Their kitchen remains in their own hands: the meals they prepare are varied and clean, with meat, cheese and wine still on the table, and it falls to Mariangela to shop for it - a walk down a hilly street.

Villagers see that determination as typical. Betti Uda, who runs a tourism business in Bolotana, said of the village's elderly women: "If they want to do something, they will – nothing holds them back".

Two more Bolotana women are expected to turn 100 by the end of this year, and two more in 2027 - among them Mariangela Marras.