‘Dolce Far Niente Bella’, a phrase popularized by “Eat, Pray, Love,” translates from Italian to ‘the sweetness of doing nothing’.
Sometimes when we travel it’s so easy to see the world quickly, without paying much attention to the smaller details that sent us out in the world in the first place.
It is extremely important to slow down during a RTW trip, and we ladies process things differently than men do. What’s better is we have an uncanny ability to get really intimate with our travels using our six senses (that’s right your intuitive sense!)
Here are my top 20 ways to Dolce Far Niente around the world (I may have done a few of them) :
- Nap in Bryant Park in NYC…barefoot; let those babies air out post walk-a-thon through the concrete jungle.
- Split a bottle of wine with new travel buddies at dusk in an Italian piazza.
- Take yourself out to a luxurious dinner and just indulge in your meal.
- Sleep in until 11am in that expensive bnb you booked as a splurge—for added “niente,” sleep naked.
- Walk up and down a secluded beach and just breathe in the salty air.
- Sip your coffee or tea on a sun drenched balcony.
- Cook a lavish meal for YOU (think Julie Roberts and the asparagus scene).
- Read your leisure book in a hammock in Cozumel.
- Watch for shooting stars on a chilly evening with a cup of tea in Vermont.
- Take in a sunset like it is the last one you will ever see off the Pacific Rim.
- Stand in the middle of a Turkish market and well…as my good friend Stephanie says “…take it in.”
- Listen to the silence—wherever the road might have led you.
- Wake up and wander the cobblestone streets of Europe with no particular sight to see-just wander.
- Make out with that steamy Costa Rican, on the beach, preferably at sunset. Honestly I am not sure how it could get much sweeter than this!
- Sit near a campfire with your travel gal pals. Take turns telling your most embarrassing travel story to date.
- Practice “apertivo” in Italy; essentially a decadent happy hour in which bars offer free meats and cheeses with the purchase of cocktail until the later dinner hour arrives.
- Sit on the edge of a dock with your toes in the lake and sun on your back.
- Take a walk in the rain in Buenos Aires and notice everyone else scurrying about to stay dry.
- Enjoy an icy cold Corona under some palm trees.
- Joy ride on your new man’s motorcycle; don’t ask him where you are going just hold onto his waist (unless you don’t know him…then you should read our articles on safety here).
Dolce far niente bella!
