There are a lot of differences between Italy and America, but one of them really stands out. It’s something that travel pro Rick Steves thinks should be a bigger part of American life, and it isn’t the later dinner times or better gelato shops. Steves recently spoke to Strong Towns about what we here in the U.S. can learn from Europe, and it centers on a feature that any traveler to Italy has seen and experienced: the piazza. We may know it better as a town square, but the ones you find in Italy (Steves’ favorite country) aren’t full of cars. Instead, they’re full of people interacting, catching up, and sometimes doing business. Steves explains, “The piazza is where people come together, person to person without televisions, without locked doors, without garages, without siloing. It’s young people, old people, romantic couples, people with babies, poor people, rich people—everybody’s out licking their ice cream cones and checking in.”
Many towns have parks, of course, but a piazza is a little different. While you may bring a picnic to the park with your family, or go for a solitary walk, a piazza is a place in Italy where people come together to catch up, have a chat, and actually interact with people. In fact, there is even a custom around it. Steves has spoken in the past about the best way to communicate with Italian locals, which is taking part in the passeggiata. That’s the time in the early evening when everyone walks around the piazza, sometimes dressing up, visiting with friends, looking to see and be seen. It’s built-in facetime with actual humans.
Why Rick Steves thinks piazzas would create more livable American downtowns
The piazza has been a European staple since ancient Greece’s agora. It was a spot in town where people once came together to talk about politics, listen to speeches, and sometimes buy and sell goods. Sometimes it was near a church or town hall, where you caught up on the news from a town crier or posted notices, and celebrated festivals together. Basically, it was a place to interact, which is something we don’t do as much as we used to.
Steves says having a pedestrian central space where we’re not fighting traffic can be a game changer. Towns with squares can be more welcoming, he says. (Rome itself has over 2,000 piazzas.) We could all use a little practice speaking to other humans and making eye contact. It’s something Steves often talks about. One tip he has for being a good traveler is trying to become more of an extrovert and just giving conversations with strangers a shot, which we may not be used to back home.
These days, we all walk around with our faces in our devices. We may chat with other people online, of course, but the in-person interaction we could be getting from a visit to a piazza in our own towns could be really beneficial. In fact, a 2023 study published in the journal Sage found that speaking to people in person can lower stress and boost happiness, even once a day. Steves says that, in a way, piazzas in Italy and the rest of Europe sort of compel people to come together in pedestrian zones, something he’s worked on bringing to his own home town of Edmonds, Washington. It may be worth fighting for in your own home town as well.
