Sun, Salt, and Nowhere to Be
A southern-Italian summer distilled to its essence — lapping water, long lunches, and the radical idea that nothing might be the whole point.
Yes, another book on drifting away in Italy. Is there really anything wrong with that? The Italians have perfected a few things, and the lazy summer day is one of them. And Il Dolce Far Niente, “the sweetness of doing nothing,” is a really good one, where turning through the pages draws you into the lazed heat, quiet lapping water, and white skies of an Italian summer day, usually beach side, or never too far from it.
The author, Lucy Laucht, meanders through a tour of southern Italy — Naples, the Aeolian Islands, the Amalfi coast, Puglia — essentially anywhere south of Roma, but in a way that never feels comparative. These are all wonderful places, and you’re just on vacation, after all, so it doesn’t matter.
In Naples, a concrete pier at a local city beach with a tinny radio plays and the sounds of splashing in the water surround you. The requisite pictures of shirtless, bronzed old men, I Vecchi, lying around bantering, of course. In Ischia, time truly stretches out on la spiaggia — a long lunch of pasta and seafood, a quiet dip when the sun wanes, and waiting on a pier for a slow, lunky taxiboat, to come or to go.
“It’s not just about the sweetness of doing nothing, the joy of idleness. It’s about discovering that nothing can really be something.”
In Sicily and Puglia, the art of the lazy day in cerulean waters always seems to land at the courtyard table when the summer torch dies down. Plates of food to be shared, simple, fresh dishes — no one wants intricacy after a hot day — sliced tomatoes, a bowl of roasted peppers, a fish grilled, lemon squeezed. It’s all but a composition together, laden with laughter, children around, and the still air of evening.
“Back down in the port, life is reduced to a series of simple questions. Where shall we lunch? Where shall we dine? Which beach shall we visit today? Do we walk there, or hop on a boat? What day is it, anyway? Does it really matter?”
The book is truly transporting and captures the essence of a day in the sun, with a few insider tips and recipes threaded in because, why not, it’s Italy, where small gestures have gravity and eating together is religion. Find a corner and drift away properly with this book.
