I once spent an entire summer in a small town in Sicily and it was there, one evening, that I caught a glimpse into la passeggiata that theretofore had escaped me. The other times that I had witnessed it were typically in medium sized cities, and the feeling there was something you would experience at a free concert in the park or some similar event in a typical American suburb, with many small groups of people — couples, families, groups of friends — who would gather for a couple of hours in public, with maybe a band playing and beer being sold and consumed in red plastic cups.

The difference in Italy of course is that you are more likely to be having a gelato than drinking, and if you are drinking, it might be a small glass of wine or something similar, and there probably will not be a central event. In Italy, the passeggiata, a kind of loosely organized but informal public stroll, is the event itself. Nothing else happens except that, but it is plenty.