Rome: Europe`s oldest person Emma Morano, who lives in Italy`s Verbania town, celebrated her 114th birthday Friday.
She received a telegram from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on the occasion.
Morano lives in an apartment in Verbania, around 100 km northwest of Milan. She still cooks for herself and does housework.
Born in 1889 in the mountain village of Civiasco in the northwest Piedmont region, she has always eaten three eggs a day -- two raw and one cooked -- on advice given by a doctor when she was a teenager.
The oldest of eight children, she married young and moved to the neighbouring Lombardy region where she worked as a seamstress until she retired at the age of 75. Her only child died in infancy at seven months.
Morano attributes her longevity to going to bed before 7 p.m. and rising at 6 a.m., a routine that has remained largely unchanged throughout her life.
She eats frugally -- biscuits and milk for breakfast, three eggs during the day, pasta and mince for lunch and milk for supper.
