Giovanna Ledda is an amazing woman. She’ll be 92 in August of 2012. She makes lace. Not just any lace, but a particular type of Sardinian lace called “Bosa Filet Lace” from the town where Giovanna lives on the west coast of Sardinia between Alghero and Oristano. It is a lace born out of a fisherman’s net making, an endeavor well known in Bosa.
Today Giovanna’s hands fly through the stitches, but perhaps not as fast as they used to. She told us that in her prime (shortly after she learned how to make lace at age 12 in order to help feed the family) her hands were so fast you couldn’t see them while she worked.
We made pictures. We made a video. Her hands were still fast enough to blur in both.
So I asked her what was the secret to her long and productive life. Her advice? “Eat everything. Get some sun. Walk everywhere.”
Guide Paola Loi stepped in to ask, “but what of your worries? What do you do if you have them?”
“Tell them to take a walk, too!”
And to watch Giovanna looping her needle through the grid of thread, it’s apparent her strategy works, even on an island known for its longevity.
See the video and learn more about Bosa: Bosa Filet Lace.
More stories from Sardinia
Cooking Sardinian at the Tenuto Li Lioni
Autunno in Barbagia: Artisan Sardinia
There are Two Sardinias, and One of Them is Dying