Pioppi is an Italian hamlet (''

frazione A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...

'') in the municipality of

Pollica Pollica (Campanian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. Located 94 km from Salerno, the town rises to an elevation 370 meters from sea level. History The first mention of Pol ...

(

Province of Salerno The Province of Salerno ( it, Provincia di Salerno) is a province in the Campania region of Italy. __TOC__ Geography The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 131,950; Cava de' Tirreni, Battipagli ...

), in

Cilento Cilento is an Italian geographical region of Campania in the central and southern part of the Province of Salerno and an important Tourism, tourist area of southern Italy. Cilento is known as one of the centers of Mediterranean diet. Geograph ...

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

region. Its name means '

poplars ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

' in the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

History

The area of the village was a dependency of the

Benedictine Abbey , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

Cava de' Tirreni Cava de' Tirreni (; Cilentan: ''A Càva'') is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, northwest of the town of Salerno. It lies in a richly cultivated valley surrounded by wooded hills, and is a pop ...

. In 994 a church was built, named ''Sancta Maria de li Puppi''. Around the building grew a fisherman's village, totally destroyed during the

Sicilian Vespers The Sicilian Vespers ( it, Vespri siciliani; scn, Vespiri siciliani) was a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou, who had ruled the Kingdom of S ...

(1282-1302) and rebuilt some years later.

Geography

This coastal village by the

Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...

is between

Acciaroli Acciaroli is an Italian hamlet (''frazione''), the most populous in the ''comune'' of Pollica, Province of Salerno, in the Campania Region. Geography Acciaroli is a port on the Cilento coast on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The largest township in its ''co ...

and

Marina di Casalvelino Marina di Casalvelino, also spelled ''Casalvelino Marina'', is a southern Italian village and hamlet (''frazione'') of Casal Velino, a municipality in the province of Salerno, Campania. With a population of 1,263 (2009), it is the most populated ha ...

(a civil parish of

Casal Velino Casal Velino, also spelled ''Casalvelino'', is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. History The village, first mentioned in the 11th century, was named ''Casalicchio'' until 1893. It was ...

). It is 10 km from the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

town of

Velia , alternate_name = Hyele, Ele, Elea , image = Velia Excavation and Tower.jpg , alt = , caption = View of the excavations and the tower at Velia , map_type = Italy , map_alt = , map_size = , relief = , coordinates = , location = Ve ...

and 4.6 km from Pollica.

Tourism

Pioppi, part of

Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park (Italian language, Italian ''Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni'') is an List of National Parks of Italy, Italian national park in the Province of Salerno, in Campania in souther ...

, is a tourist destination, especially in the summer. Due to the quality of its water, it has won the "

Blue Flag Beach The Blue Flag is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that a beach, marina, or sustainable boating tourism operator meets its standards. The Blue Flag is a trademark owned by FEE, which is a not-for-profit non-gov ...

" award for several years. One of its sights is the ''Museo Vivo del Mare'' ('Sea Museum'), in an ancient building named ''Palazzo Vinciprova''.

People

Ancel Keys Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces card ...

(1904–2004), an American

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

, lived and worked from 1963 to 1998 in Pioppi, studying the

Mediterranean diet The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of people who live near the Mediterranean Sea. When initially formulated in the 1960s, it drew on the cuisines of Greece, Italy, France and Spain. In decades since, it has also incor ...

, in his estate overlooking the

Greek colony Greek colonization was an organised colonial expansion by the Archaic Greeks into the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea in the period of the 8th–6th centuries BC. This colonization differed from the migrations of the Greek Dark Ages in that i ...

of Elea, an estate he named "Minnelea", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsMinnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and Elea. *

Martti Karvonen The IV District, also known as Martti (Finnish; ''Martinsbacken'' in Swedish), is one of the central districts of Turku, Finland. It is located on the east side of the river Aura, between ''Tervahovinkatu'' in the west and ''Betaniankatu'' and ...

(1918–2009), known for the Karvonen method, also lived in Minnelea studying the

with

. He spent his life after retirement in Pioppi. *

Jeremiah Stamler Jeremiah Stamler (October 27, 1919 – January 26, 2022) was an American scientist specializing in preventive cardiology and the study of the influence of various risk factors on coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, and the rol ...

(1919-2022), a cardiologist, who, after retirement, divided his time between Minnelea,

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

.Jeremiah Stamler, MD (b.1919)
profile in

', ''School of Public Health'',

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Things named after

There is a fad-diet book named after this village called ''The Pioppi Diet'' by

Aseem Malhotra Aseem Malhotra is a British cardiologist, public health campaigner, author, and advocate against the use of COVID vaccines. He campaigns for people to reduce sugar in their diet, promotes a low-carb and high-fat diet, and encourages the reduct ...

and Donal O'Neill.

References

External links

"Museo Vivo del Mare" official website
{{authority control Frazioni of the Province of Salerno Coastal towns in Campania Localities of Cilento