La Passeggiata

Two years in Italy taught me a lot about life and convinced me that the Italians have more than just darn good food over there, they've got a lifestyle. I think about some aspect of my experiences in Italy and the wonderful Italian culture everyday, and today that was La Passeggiata. La Passeggiata is the Italian tradition of taking evening walks. In smaller cities there is a common street or piazza where the locals gather nightly to stroll and chat about everything from the meal they ate that night to the political scandals surrounding their local government officials. One of my favorite memories of La Passeggiata took place on the Island of Sardinia in a city by the name of Sassari. We were in the old part of town near the main piazza and the old men were fully engaged in their nightly Passeggiata. However, in this small Mediterranean city the piazza was a little too small and the old men had their own way of dealing with it by pacing the piazza. They would walk to one end of the piazza, turn around, and walk back. Then they would do it again, over, and over. I loved it. I even think I have a picture of it that I'll have to dig up.

Tonight Jesse and I had our own little Passeggiata. We made it a goal to walk together every Sunday. Actually, we first made a goal to walk together everyday, but after we failed to meet that goal we set something a little more realistic. It was so nice to walk and talk, and Jesse even stopped to smell the roses. She said they smelled so good she just couldn't pass them by. We didn't have a beautiful piazza in the middle of an ancient Italian city, but we had the Passeggiata. We walked and talked and when we got back to our apartment we both felt relaxed and happy about life. God bless those Italians, the pasta and the Passeggiata are divine!