Italian vacations with my father were a highlight of my early teens. Our typical destination was his hometown of Aradeo, a sleepy comune in the province of Lecce in Puglia. We’d spend days jumping into the sea and evenings eating pizza, while nighttime — rather unusually for a boy brought up in Wales — was dedicated to wandering the cobbled streets along with the rest of the town, from curious toddlers to arm-in-arm octogenarians. I didn’t have a label for it at the time, but this was my first experience of the passeggiata.
Like the afternoon riposo (nap) or post-work aperitivo hour, la passeggiata is a tradition ingrained in Italian culture, and one that’s becoming world-renowned with the wellness-minded — even as some Italians find all the international attention puzzling.
The bemusement makes sense. After all, la passeggiata, at its core, is simply a leisurely after-dinner stroll with no destination; you wander an unwritten route through towns and urban parks, or along riversides and seafronts, as you unwind, chat and perhaps enjoy a gelato.
And walking after dinner is by no means exclusive to Italy. Spain has a culture of paseo, Greece has the volta, and Indians enjoy shatapawali, an Ayurvedic walking tradition to aid digestion. Yet there’s something about a passeggiata that’s uniquely and undeniably Italian — and its origins stretch back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
The history of la passeggiata
Walking had a key social and cultural role during the Roman period, but it was during the Renaissance that the modern passeggiata formed. Nobility paraded through cities to show off their finest attire, displaying their true wealth and status. The Baroque period enhanced this by building long grand avenues perfect for parading. Today, such parading has continued in villages, towns and major cities across Italy — complete with contemporary participants intent on showing off new shoes or just solidifying their place in the community.
There’s no formal time, route or purpose to la passeggiata. In his 2019 paper for the Museo del Camminare (Museum of Walking) in Venice, author Gian Paolo Chiari attempted to explain it as a “self-organizing social event.” He continued, “In many historical cases, the walk celebrated a famous person or a special event, but without ever losing its spontaneity. Various recreational activities played a historic role in attracting and entertaining participants — for example, band concerts in public parks in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet they were carried out in conjunction with the walk, without ever being the cause.”
Talk to any Italian today and the whole concept may be met with nonchalance. After all, while la passeggiata is a lovely tradition, it’s just a part of daily life and no different from a morning cappuccino and cornetto. Yet venture into the world of social media and you’ll notice that la passeggiata has become something of a “life hack.”
This is often due to the physical benefits associated with walking after dinner, which include aiding digestion, regulating blood sugar levels and helping you torch a few calories ahead of that gelato. But there’s more to it than simply helping you maintain a healthy weight.
The mental and social benefits of la passeggiata
With the rise of digital entertainment and online socialization, the internet age has seen a decline in la passeggiata, which has been unofficially relegated to Sundays and slower moments in many Italian cities and mid-size towns, while you’re still likely to see the whole town turn out daily in smaller, non-urban areas. But there’s an argument to be made that the preservation of this quintessential Italian ritual is now more important than ever.
We’re living in a loneliness epidemic, often perpetuated by digital living. Considering that loneliness has been declared a “global public health concern” by the World Health Organization — equating the negative health impacts to smoking 15 cigarettes a day — it’s something to take very seriously.
This is where la passeggiata can help. It’s a catalyst for improving your mental wellbeing through both physiological benefits — such as improved energy levels and reduced feelings of stress — and the community interaction. Seeing people in the flesh, chatting to friends and family, and knowing that you are part of something greater than yourself is what truly makes the walk worth taking.
Generations of anecdotal evidence aside, scientific research continues to support the mental health benefits of walking. One 2024 study by a group of Hong Kong-based researchers concluded that walking can be “adopted as an evidence-based intervention for reducing depression and anxiety.”
Walking the walk, no matter what
Of course, there’s an elephant in the room — or rather, on the road. While enjoying a gentle passeggiata in Italy is as easy as leaving your home, in the United States and other parts of the world, unscripted communal walking is very rare, if not nonexistent. (You can always wrangle some friends, family members or neighbors to join you — but if that’s your hope, you’ll have to be okay with sacrificing some of that famous Italian spontaneity.)
This is when creating and maintaining a solo passeggiata routine can come in handy.
In 2020, when global lockdowns were enforced, walking was one of the only outdoor activities permitted. Mercifully, in the U.K., the spring of the pandemic brought glorious sunshine, meaning many people were taking full advantage of evening walks. After dinner I’d wander around my neighborhood, often in silence, no screens, simply taking in the blooming trees and warm breeze.
There were no gelaterias, fancy clothes or energetic atmosphere, but this walk helped me maintain a healthy weight — and my sanity — during such a sedentary period. Perhaps most crucially, it reminded me that there was a world outside of my house.
When lockdowns were lifted later in the year, my personal passeggiata had by then become a habit, set in stone the same way it was for the residents of Aradeo when I visited all those years ago. Even today, five years after first doing this, I still get my shoes on after dinner. If I can take someone along with me for a chat, then all the better, but a solo walk is just as clarifying.
Naturally, some evenings, particularly during miserable Welsh winters, walking outside is the last thing I want to do. So I set a goal to tie my laces and get outside for five minutes. More often than not, five minutes turns into 10, 20 or 30. Even through the winter wind and rain, this short walk has its benefits. I often tend to feel happier post-passeggiata, with better digestion, more mental clarity and a greater sense of wellbeing.
Whether you’re taking a balmy passeggiata with hundreds of others through the streets of Florence or traipsing solo through the streets of your local area, it’s an evening enhancer like no other. If the winter blues have hit or you simply want to prioritize better mental wellbeing in 2025, start with a passeggiata of your own. You never know where you might end up.
