La Dolce Vita — what the phrase really means

Literally, la dolce vita means the sweet life. Today it mostly stands for an image: Vespa, sunglasses, espresso standing at the bar, no appointments. The origin of the phrase is considerably more awkward.

The film

Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita came out in 1960 and was no hymn of praise. The film follows a journalist who drifts through Roman nights and grows emptier along the way. The sweet life is a diagnosis in it, not a recommendation. Along the way the film gave the world a word everyone has used since: paparazzo, after a minor character.

How criticism became a way of life

The term broke away from the film because the images were stronger than the plot. What stuck was Rome in summer, the Via Veneto, the feeling that the evening doesn't have to end. Sixty years later, the phrase stands for the opposite of what Fellini wanted to show — and that's perfectly fine; that's how words work.

What works in everyday life

The useful part of the idea isn't idleness, it's the order of things. Food first, then work. Coffee with someone first, then the to-do list. Italian everyday life isn't slower than German everyday life, it's sorted differently.

• Espresso is drunk standing up, takes two minutes and is still a break.
• Lunch is a meal, not a snack at your desk.
• In the evening you go out, even without a reason. The passeggiata is a walk without a destination.

Our La Dolce Vita Pomegranate T-shirt carries the phrase on the back, on 100% combed cotton at 220 g/m². The Riviera category goes with it.