江蘇 陳福金

Fabrizio Cardinali,age 72,says he has no use for electricity.For more than fifty years,he has lived entirely without the public electricity network.That makes him one of the few people in Europe unconcerned about rising energy costs this winter.

Cardinali lives in a stone house near Ancona,on Italy's eastern Adriatic coast.By choice,he has no electricity,no gas,and no indoor plumbing.“I was not interested in being part of the world as it was going.So I left everything such as family,university,friends and the sports team,and set off in a completely different direction,”he said.

In the past,he lived alone.Right now,he has two people who live with him,as well as animals such as chickens and a cat.He calls the small community“The Tribe of the Harmonious Walnuts”.Cardinali and his two friends use a wood-burning stove for cooking and warmth.They read by lamps fueled with used cooking oil that is given to them by neighbors.“The Harmonious Walnuts”grow fruit,vegetable and olives to produce olive oil,and keep bees for honey.A local group sells them foods such as legumes,cereals and wheat.

When possible,they trade goods for things they need.Although some people have called him“The Hermit of Cupramontana”,Cardinali says he is not a hermit.A hermit is a person who lives in a simple way apart from others.He sometimes travels short distances to visit friends.He takes olives to a stone press to make oil,and walks or gets rides to the nearest town to have a coffee with local people or visit the doctor.

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How did Cardinali and his two friends live after they were entirely off the public electricity network?