The oldest man in the world is 111-year-old Arturo Licata, an Italian from Sicily.
Arturo was born on 2 May 1902 in the Sicilian city of Enna, where he still lives. At the age of nine, he went to work in a mine and later served in the Italian military in Africa. Arturo worked at the Floristella, Grottacalda and Pasquasia sulphur and salt mines for 20 years. Then he worked as a nurse at a dispensary for children suffering from tuberculosis.
He and his wife Rosa had seven children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Rosa died in 1980, and the couple’s six surviving children look after Arturo, who is now bedridden with poor eyesight and hearing.
Sadly, Arturo’s failing health has meant that he has had to abandon playing the guitar. At one time, he played guitar after lunch and dinner, although ‘La Repubblica’ reports that the daughter who lives with him says she still hears her father sing old songs in Italian and Sicilian dialect.
Arturo’s longevity may be because he has lived a healthy life. As a young man, he had to walk 13 miles a day to the mine where he worked because there were no cars. Arturo shuns sophisticated food, choosing to eat vegetables, raw onion and a little red meat. He drinks a glass of red wine with meals and his favourite dish is pasta with ricotta. However, Arturo never fails to drink a coffee in the morning and after lunch.
Guinness World Records recognised Arturo as the world’s oldest man after the death of Spanish-born Salustiano ‘Shorty’ Sanchez at a nursing home in Grand Island, Erie County, New York aged 112.
The 115-year-old Italian-American Dina Manfredini (née Guerri) was the oldest Italian ever. She was born in Pievepelago in Modena, Emilia-Romagna in 1897 and died in 2012 in Johnston, Iowa.
