By Jay Walljasper

Editors note: Images from Fred Kent and Kathy Madden. Text adapted from The Great Neighborhood Book.

From fashion to fettuccine to la dolce vita, the world looks to Italy for inspiration on finding pleasure in the world.

I hope the next great Italian import to brighten our lives will be the passeggiata—an evening stroll for the express purpose of seeing and being seen. People follow the same route through a neighborhood or town, often making two or more loops, which provides plentiful opportunities for conversation, flirting and catching up on local gossip.

“I realized that I kept seeing the same people, but in different combinations," notes writer Adam Goodheart observing the social dynamics of passeggiata in the town of Eboli. "Here came a blond woman pushing a stroller. Next lap, she was arm in arm with a younger woman and the stroller was nowhere to be seen. Later, they’d been joined by an old lady who was pushing the stroller. Next, they were surrounded by men, jackets draped over their shoulder.”

The value of passeggiata is that it’s fun, it’s free, anyone can do it—plus, most importantly, it gives rise to an enlivening spirit of community. There’s no better way to genuinely connect us to those we live among.

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But passeggiata (pronounced pas-seg-già-ta) is not exclusively Italian. In Spain and Latin America, they call it the paseo. In Greece, the volta. Far beyond warm-weather places, the Germans enjoy a spaziergang and the Swedes a kvallpromenad. In English...and French, we call it a promenade— describing the activity as well as the place where we do it.

The promenade is well-documented in historical and literary sources. The bible’s Book of Genesis dates it back as far as Eden, describing God “walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze.” No matter what your beliefs, we all share an enduring instinct to connect with people on a daily stroll.

A place to see and be seen—sociability, not mobility is the point of evening strolls

Noted architectural theorist and placemaker Christopher Alexander observes, “It seems that people, of all cultures, may have a general need for this kind of human mixing which the promenade makes possible.”

In his groundbreaking design guide A Pattern Language, Alexander recommends a promenade loop should be approximately 1500 feet (between ¼ and 1/3-mile), which can easily be walked in ten minutes at a leisurely pace. You don’t want to make the course too long for little kids or older people.

This promenade route in Otranto, Italy, is almost a mile along the harbor front, with the opportunity for strollers to do shorter version for their daily passeggiatta

It’s important that there are many things to see and do along the route, Alexander emphasizes, with no dead zones (parking lots, blank walls, vacant areas) of more than 150 feet. While the primary purpose of these strolls is social, people also like to have some destination to gather: a café, playground, bookstore, ice cream shop or other public venue etc.

Even at the height of the Covid-19 crisis these activities were still possible in some cases on wide streets where physical distance can be maintained. But many Italians who were forced to give up the passeggiata sought each other’s company in less-contagious ways, such as singing to one another from their balconies. Now, as the stay-at-home orders are being eased, the country is now resuming its national pastime.


Other Resources

Paris, the World’s Best Waterfront
Paris Plage challenges the idea of iconic design as a way for cities to show off. Instead centering the creation of iconic places, Paris Plage sets a high standard for other cities to emulate.
A Great European Waterfront Few People Know About
Otranto— a town of 6000 on the Adriatic Sea—features harborside streets alive with walkers
Addressing the Epidemic of Loneliness: Five Campaigns to Restore Social Life in Our Communities
We are in the middle of an epidemic of loneliness. These 5 campaigns to restore social life in our communities will get us out.

On The Placemaking Movement:

The Past, Present, and Future of the Global Placemaking Movement
Imagine if the places where we live were shaped for, and from, our social lives, re-imagined to make it easy for us to gather, shop, have fun, eat together, and be around people different from us. we would collectively have an impact on the health of our planet.
11 Transformative Agendas to Restore Social Life in Your Community
These transformative agendas can be a foundation for the future and a roadmap for communities to improve the “places” and after COVID, Build Back Better that can help us with ideas to shape our communities for the future.


Who We Are

The Place Man: Watch the New Documentary on the Placemaking Movement
We have recently created a documentary, The Place Man, about our work in placemaking over the last 50 years, made by the wonderful Guillermo Bernal. It got us thinking about the state of the placemaking movement and what’s next.
Global Placemaking Summit - Mexico City, November 2023
A collection of images showing the joyful gathering at the Global Placemaking Summit and the beauty of Mexico City’s streets and public spaces on the Day of the Dead weekend.
The mission of the Social Life Project is to incite a renaissance of community connection in public spaces around the globe. Our work grows out of more than 50 years devoted to building the global placemaking movement. It is an initiative of the Placemaking Fund, along with PlacemakingX — a global network of leaders who together accelerate placemaking as a way to create healthy, inclusive, and beloved communities. Through our online publication, presentations, campaigns, and catalytic projects, we can create transformative impact on communities everywhere.If you are interested in our helping to build a community-wide campaign or catalytic interventions, presentations, exhibits, and more or supporting the cause contact us.
"There are more and more of us fighting for a different vision of the world—a world that takes care of our most precious resources: the air we breathe, the water we drink and the places we share." – Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, France

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