Tourists now come to town specifically to meet her, friends bring her tomatoes from their garden to compliment her, fellow villagers deliver newspapers featuring her and she gets phone calls from all over Italy, as well as tens of thousands of likes and comments on social media.

This wave of popularity that has swept Margherita in the space of a weekend.

Nearly 94, without a smartphone or Wi-Fi, the reserved and upright Margherita has become an influencer despite herself.

Others tell her about her online success, reading the thousands of comments of admiration and affection that pour in from all over Italy and even abroad, from fans she never imagined she’d win over with a simple interview.

“She made Italy fall in love,” comments a photographer outside her house.

She’s been wearing the traditional dress every day since 1949, and she’s the last person in town to do so.

Looking out her window, a thousand meters above sea level in the heart of Abruzzo, in a hilltop village with long, harsh winters, Margherita observes everything with her usual ironic detachment, in what she calls “the most unusual weekend of my life”.

Despite the unusual weekend, Margherita can’t entirely distract herself from the grief over the recent passing of her lifelong friends, Adelia and Anna. Along with her, they were the last three to wear Scanno’s traditional costume every day.

“Who would have ever thought something like that? Suddenly, they won’t leave me alone anymore,” she comments to ANSA.

She smiles, unruffled, and offers a cutting remark.

“I won’t even be able to sit outside the front door anymore; they’ll find me everywhere asking for a photo,” she snorts and then laughs.

And she’s not entirely wrong. A young musician from Vasto on the coast, Paolo Pasquini, came up here with his partner on his birthday just to meet her.

“We wandered all over town, asking for directions at bars and church to find her,” he says, trying to find the mysterious window of the “lady in traditional costume”, hoping for a meeting and a photo as a birthday present.

“When we were about to leave, we turned the corner and saw her. ‘Signora, I’ve been looking for you all day! Can I ask you for a photo?’”

“Again?” Margherita replies, before allowing him a shot, once again in her unmistakable style.

ANSA