Week Five GL 350

“And so, taking the long way home through the market I slow my pace down. It doesn't come naturally. My legs are programmed to trot briskly and my arms to pump up and down like pistons, but I force myself to stroll past the stalls and pavement cafes. To enjoy just being somewhere, rather than rushing from somewhere, to somewhere. Inhaling deep lungfuls of air, instead of my usual shallow breaths. I take a moment to just stop and look around me. And smile to myself. For the first time in a long time, I can, quite literally, smell the coffee.” – Alexandra Potter

Sometimes, it just does a person good to relax. Everybody needs that time when they can unwind, reduce their stress level, and simply take a break from the burdens of a busy life. Designated leisure time however, is not always easy to come by because it can mean something different for every single person depending on things like interests, culture, upbringing, or nationality. Regardless of what you specifically classify as “leisure,” as Potter writes, it is anything that makes you slow down, enjoy life, and “smell the coffee.”

Typically, leisure time in America is few and far between. We live in a high-paced society that has some of the longest working hours in the world. So when Americans do get leisure time, it usually consists of a quick (and highly inadequate) unwinding before getting right back to work and doing the same thing all over the very next day. While in theory, leisure in America has the general idea of relaxation after a long day, leisure in America is often confused to be synonymous with using technology, watching tv, or playing electronic games. Also, American leisure is usually done at home or in a designated “leisure” area such as a sporting event, an amusement park, a movie theater, or any location that people congregate for some form of entertainment.  And while these things are typically considered as leisurely to the average American, other cultures have quite a different view on leisure time.

In Italy, leisure is something that is not only more widely accepted, but something that is incorporated into every-day life and even planned on a daily basis. Italians incorporate leisure into their lives in many ways. One of these ways is through the daily siesta time that is a recognized break in the middle of the day that most shops and restaurants observe by shutting down, going home to relax, and usually returning a few hours later to finish out the rest of the work day. Another difference in the Italian form of leisure is that there are designated leisure areas located almost everywhere. As Wharton describes, Italy consists of many streets, piazzas, and parks that are filled with people who go there to relax, like the Borghese Gardens for example. She writes that, at the Gardens, “The human scene plays as uninterrupted Roman theater. Strolling grandmothers and daughters, fathers teaching sons to ride bikes, romping dogs, red-hot lovers, friends arm-in-arm…” This description of relaxation at the Gardens is applicable not only to this location in Italy, but other leisure areas as well. As Potter writes, sometimes the best leisure comes from taking in a beautiful view. Wharton also writes, “The wildly Baroque garden behind the Villa d’Este gushes with amazing fountains, the mythological statues surprising you at every step you take down the steep and beautifully cultivated paths.”

While both American and Italian cultures consist of forms of leisure, there is a very different approach to how the leisure is achieved. Italian leisure usually includes everyday activities and relaxation incorporated into life. The leisure is so ingrained into the Italian culture in fact that sometimes Italians do not even recognize it any more, because it is so normal. As Barzini writes, “the sulphurous gleams of a scirocco dawn when fishing boats hang like pallid spectres upon the skyline: there are thousands of joys like these, but the natives do not see them, although, to please foreigners, they sometimes pretend to…” The difference between leisure in America is that it almost always has to be planned, where as in Italy, relaxation can come from anywhere and anything around you.