There are very current terms such as slow food, slow trekking, slow life, slow job, brunch, time life, which want to revive a movement of people, a slower life, a softer landing to the days, a marginalization of relationships with social media to relive the real ones, between people, family, friends, loves and anyone who is willing to listen to you.

It seems that people are rediscovering real contacts, to the detriment of intangible ones through smartphones, to confront each other, to laugh, to be moved, to tell their experiences looking the other person in the eye to capture their emotions, make new appointments and cultivate new friendships and relationships.

Basically you are looking for a lost empathy, an exchange of senses, winks, smiles, emotion and the desire to build a true, present and known network of relationships.

But those who are a few years older know that all this was already there, it was the common way of life, where no one hid behind a social profile, not it could be very different from what it was, and perhaps we took ourselves a little less seriously.

I remember that there was the summer vacation that lasted from two to three months. It had an obsolete and disused name, "the holiday".

Many even left in early June or early July and returned in mid-September. The highway was a row of Fiat 850, 600, 1100, 127, 500 and 128, Maggiolini and Prinz. It was not looked at at all who had the BMW, the Mercedes or the Audi, because the status symbols did not exist then. It was all simpler and more true.

The vacation lasted so long that you longed to go back to school and see friends from your neighborhood, and on your return you hardly remembered where you lived. In the morning on the beach the 50 lire to hear the songs of the summer in the juke box or to buy coca cola and football.

On Fridays the offices closed and all the dads came and went to spend the weekend with their families. We sent postcards arriving in October but it was a way to wish "Happy Holidays from ..." to friends and relatives.

Despite 90 days or more of vacation, Italy was the third world power, people were full of values and the sea was clean.

We were happy, we all played together, we were all the same and where four ate even five, six or more ate. Nobody had to study for the summer and the only problem for us boys was not to pierce the ball, not to break the bicycle and knees while playing football, otherwise when you returned home you would take the rest as well.

The weather was fine until August 15th, on the 16th the first storm arrived and in the evening we needed a sweater because it was cooler.

Meanwhile, September was coming, normalcy was back. We went back to school, life resumed, Italy grew and the first theme at school was always. "Talk about your holidays".

Today everything has changed, different. The holiday is so short that when you come back you don't even know if you left or dreamed of it. And if you don't go to the Caribbean in Sharm or Ibiza you are an asshole. Or maybe you have so many things to do that maybe it's better if you don't leave at all, you stress less.

A sure answer is that back then we were all simpler, less spoiled and all much happier, us kids and adults alike. Society was better, there was love, family, respect and solidarity. We are lucky that we have lived like this.

Life was the real one.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.

- Author unknown