Northern Sardinia greets you first with a smell. Step off the plane or ferry and a warm herbal breeze envelops you, carrying the distinctive fragrance of elicriso (Mediterranean helichrysum), almost, and curiously so, curry-like. Locals tell us “la Sardegna sa di elicriso,” Sardinia smells of helichrysum. 

Here, however, the land doesn’t just perfume the place, it shapes the way people live—and gives new meaning to the phrase “aging gracefully,” considering the area has nearly 10 times more centenarians per capita than the United States.