What is the passeggiata?

Walk through almost any Italian town between the end of the working day and dinner, and the streets fill up. Couples arm in arm, grandparents with grandchildren, teenagers in groups pretending not to look at other groups, people pushing bikes and stopping every few metres to chat. Nobody seems to be going anywhere in particular. That is the passeggiata.

The word and the tradition

In Italian, passeggiata simply means a walk. The Treccani dictionary defines it as the act of strolling, especially to get a bit of exercise and be out in the fresh air in quiet, pleasant places, and also as the street or promenade suited to it, such as a lakeside promenade or Florence's Lungarno.

Italians have more than one word for the ritual. Treccani's entry for struscio describes it as the Sunday or evening stroll in provincial towns, a word with a lovely sound of shoes on stone.

What visitors usually mean by "the passeggiata" is that social version: the town's collective walk, on the same stretch of street, at roughly the same hour, often in clothes slightly nicer than strictly necessary.

The rhythm

There is no rulebook, but the passeggiata tends to have a shape:

• The hour. Early evening, when the heat drops in summer and work has finished, and on Sundays after lunch or before dinner.
• The route. The main street, the corso, the seafront promenade, the piazza and back. It is often a loop or an up-and-back along a street everyone knows.
• The pace. Slow. Very slow. Faster walkers have to weave.
• The stops. A greeting every few metres, a look in a shop window, a gelato, an aperitivo at a bar table.
• The point. Company, conversation and the pleasure of being among people. The walking is almost incidental, which is perhaps why it lasts.

It is also democratic. All ages walk together, and it costs nothing.

Why we love it

The passeggiata quietly solves a problem many of us have: how to move a little every day without it becoming a chore. It is not exercise in the gym sense, but it is regular, gentle walking, built into the day by habit and company rather than willpower. Our piece on whether walking counts as exercise looks at the official side of that.

It also slows the day down. Ending the afternoon with a stroll and a chat, rather than going from desk to sofa, changes how an evening feels.

Adopting it anywhere

You do not need a Baroque piazza. A few ideas to borrow the habit at home:

• Pick a regular route. A main street, a riverside path, a park loop or a seafront. Repetition is the point; you start to recognise people.
• Pick a regular time. Before dinner works best. After dinner works too, especially in summer.
• Invite someone. A partner, a neighbour, a friend who lives nearby. The passeggiata is social by nature.
• Build in a stop. A coffee, an ice cream, a drink at a bar, a bench with a view. Every passeggiata needs a destination it does not really need.
• Dress up a little. Not because anyone checks, but because it turns a walk into an occasion.
• Leave the headphones at home. Part of the pleasure is noticing the street.

If you are in a city and want more ideas for making a walk feel like an outing, our guide to walking in the city has some.