Who is Fabrizio Cardinali, the man who has lived in the woods for 40 years without light or water (but it is a different case from the Family of the Woods)

At dawn, on the hills of Cupramontana, the darkness dissolves only in front of the faint flame of an oil lamp. No humming of refrigerators, no Wi-Fi routers, no ticking meters. Here, for almost four decades, Fabrizio Cardinali has been carrying out a radical experiment in self-sufficiency: the “Tribe of the Resonant Walnuts”.

The choice has its roots in the mid-1980s, around 1986, in stark contrast to the wave of mass consumerism. In an ancient stone farmhouse, surrounded by five hectares of land, Cardinali has created a community focused on total autonomy and the renunciation of energy-consuming modernity.

The daily practice is concrete and strict: water is drawn by hand, food cooks over the hearth, one washes without running water. The rhythm of the days is regulated by the sun and the succession of the seasons.

However, it is not a hermitage closed off from the world. A dirt path separates it from motor traffic but opens it to a constant flow of guests, companions, and friends seeking a “happy degrowth” and a more sober way of life.

The most emblematic fruit of this microcosm is Siddhartha, the almost nineteen-year-old son of Fabrizio. Growing up where every resource has a tangible limit—measuring firewood for winter or water for laundry from a young age—he has undergone an exemplary educational journey. After homeschooling in the woods, he transitioned to public school until he reached the Forest School of Ormea, in the province of Cuneo. In this historic institution—which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2025—he distinguished himself as a model student, earning a prestigious Rotary Club of Mondovì scholarship in 2024-2025.

His trajectory embodies the evolution of his father's project: from the “home woods” to the “professional woods”, to acquire skills capable of caring for the ecosystem and mindfully inhabiting modernity.

As often happens in frontier experiences, the initial impact was not simple. At the beginning, Cupramontana observed that man who renounced comforts with curiosity mixed with distrust. Today, however, the same community speaks of the Tribe with respect. The consistency over time, the absence of arrogance, and the clarity of the rules have transformed this reality into a recognized component of the local identity mosaic, even entering the tourist-civic narratives of the area.

An experiment born in countercurrent to its time that, without yielding in substance, has managed to dialogue with the surrounding world.