Beautiful Italian Words: girovagare
Sometimes, all that’s keeping you in tourist mode is Google Maps.
Have you ever just walked in circles somewhere? Maybe in a foreign town, possibly Italy?
Or maybe, without going that far, you just wandered in your own hometown aimlessly for a while? Perhaps it was a chat with a friend that you simply didn’t want to end and so you both kept on walking.
In both cases, maybe you’re not aware of this, you were girovagando.
Some synonyms for girovagare are: andare a zonzo or girare a zonzo which are beautiful words themselves.
It’s not literally getting lost. It’s more like walking around without a clear sense of direction.
When you’re a zonzo, or you’re girovagando, you are wandering.
You get to see things you otherwise would have missed.
You can discover that tiny shop that sells lovely bracelets. The owner chats with you and recommends her favorite trattoria.
You might even get lost and have to ask for directions from someone. That’s the best thing that could happen to you because that opens the doors to so many possibilities.
You could end up in a piazza that you’d have otherwise missed. This particular piazza has a tiny, baroque church that isn’t mentioned in your tourist guide but is stunning. You stop to gaze at it and a lady passes by and remarks there will be a festa there in a couple of days.
Maybe it’s nothing as romantic as all that and you just get to see the town from a different perspective. That’s good too.
When we’re thrown a tiny bit off and things don’t go as planned, a delightful thing happens: we pay more attention and we’re finally fully present and not on autopilot.
We might even notice that Italians enjoy walking a lot. We might catch them on their passeggiata della domenica where they enjoy walking, seeing and being seen and taking in the evening.
In this day and age, getting lost is not something we do a lot or that we even strive for.
We’re efficient. We have Google Maps to keep us from anything unplanned.
We have a direction and we go for it.
It’s understandable, most of the times, especially if you’re in a foreign country, you might fear for your safety or just be in a hurry.
However, in small towns, girovagare might be a golden opportunity to just be.
Ditch your tourist shoes and your bucket list of destinations.
Enjoy the unexpectedness of not having a place to go.
Beautiful things happen when we allow some unpredictability in our lives.
Especially on our Italian journey
Like my student Sharon, who got lost in Sicily and asked for help from Giovanni from Bergamo. She thanked him by offering him dinner and they’ve become friends. This year, he visited her in the US bringing a set of Italian books for her to read. She’s planning on visiting him in Bergamo sometime next year. See ? Getting lost can be the start of something wonderful.
Or like Mike, who joined my latest Gaeta Retreat. He went to the beach to enjoy a swim but left his phone home. He got lost on his way back and finally got a better grasp of where he was when he realized he’d walked four kilometers towards the neighboring town!
Or like me while I was in Cremona and I just decided to walk randomly and I discovered some beautiful palazzi and churches I’d never seen. I even found a new place to have a killer cappuccino in. I came back feeling like I’d had a little adventure when all I’d done was allow myself time to girovagare.
How many adventures and possible friendships are we missing out on when we insist on having everything all planned out?
So my invitation today to nurture your Italian connection is to take a passeggiata, a walk.
Not for your health.
Not to lose weight.
But to actually enjoy the world around you. To see and be seen. Because that’s nice too.
All you have to do is turn off your phone and take your eyes off your watch for a while.
Have you ever girovagato in Italy? Or at home?
I’d love to hear what your story was.
If girovagare and experiencing Italy fully is something you dream of, it’s possible to do it while improving your Italian. I host Italian language retreats in Cremona, in Lombardia, and Gaeta, in Lazio, in spring and in fall. Learners experience life, language and culture in small-town Italy with me. If you’d like to be the first to know when registrations open you can join my waiting list here.
Hi Elfin, thank you for sharing this. What a wonderful word and concept. I love the idea of just wandering and seeing where it takes you. You're so right, so many of us never take the time to do this. I particularly love the story of your client making a friend doing this. Girovarage. I'm probably ruining the pronunciation, but I love it.
I like this word and this philosophy. Maybe life is all about girovagare instead of getting things done as fast as we can. It’s not like we don’t know our end point, and it’s not even important: it’s more about the little gems we find on the way, the beauty, the love, the accidental smiles between strangers… thank you for that.