You know what's really neat about Italian or even European holidays?

They really really know how to relax. I mean how many Americans really know how to let go, put their feet up, and do nothing?
This summer I was fortunate enough to be invited along for an Italian style vacation on the beaches just outside of San Remo, (a city I really dislike.) solely because my native tongue was English. We decided to make this trip by bike to avoid the incredible traffic congestion that normally makes this city undoable. I was to go along to just speak to my friends and their kids in my own language so that they could become a little bit "immersed" into English while still physically being in Italy.
Well the vacation was fantastic but not at first,  I was antsy and fidgety because I realized a day into my vacation, I didn't know how to do nothing. 
Nothing consisted of going by bike to and paying for (€6.00-€18.00 depending upon the season) these little cabanas (pictured above,) complete with a couple of seats, and a little umbrella, our personal piece of private beach for the day. Yea! Stripping down to bathing suits, slathering on sunscreen and running into the ocean. Running back out of the ocean to our cabana, slathering on more sunscreen, than sleeping in the sun, of course. A little discussing.., this and that but nothing really important as well as taking long walks along the beach. Reading frivolous stories and of course eating, lunch and dinner. Now this was my previous definition of literally doing nothing, nothing being a thing that was non productive, a textbook example of accomplishing zip, zero, nada. In reality we did quite a lot. But this busy idea of nothingness was still hard for me to just let happen. I couldn't resolve the idea that I wasn't achieving something in some way. No concrete action, no concrete result, plus no computers, not even a pen and notebook! It was difficult for me to even just let go and stop thinking, much less planning and doing. Eventually I got into the swing of things, though (the fact that the people around me were also doing "nothing" sans computers and even.. gasp.., cell phones, really helped me to finally give in and get with the program.) and by the time I returned home, I felt renewed and fortified.
While the rest of us gaze longingly while judging negatively the Italian insistence on their "luxurious" vacations, I submit that there's something to be learned from them. First, these vacations are not really a luxury, they are instead a necessity. Second it is possible to spend very little for this luxury vacation experience of nothingness, with a bit of planning. Our actual vacation; traveling by bike, staying at a friends house and doing our own cooking was very inexpensive. And finally I think that in the end the Italians remember what most Americans have forgotten; to do nothing once in awhile and rest the mind and body actually heals us in mind and spirit, making us more productive people, in our job, for our families, in our lives,
long after the vacation is over.