La dolce vita can't be had in a hurry

One of the longest-running and most closely guarded inside jokes in the black community concerns something known as "CPT," or colored people time. Many of us take such a laid-back, insouciant approach to punctuality that, to paraphrase comedian Paul Mooney, if there was a TV program called "Good Morning Black America," it would air at noon.

CPT isn't something we're proud of, and until last week, I'd always imagined it to be a black thing. Until I visited Italy.

Here in the land of fast cars, tan 75-year-old men in Speedo swim trunks and incredibly tasty food, the words for "in a hurry" or "I'm in a rush" magically, mysteriously disappeared from my Italian-to-English dictionary. They were gone upon my arrival at Bologna International Airport, never to be found.

Consider shopping in Italian cities, for example. Most shops open at 10 a.m. -- and close at noon for a two- or three-hour respite. The Italians head home or to the beaches to, well, it never became clear just what they were up to during those sleepy afternoon hours.

One thing's certain: It wasn't business.

Italians I made friends with aren't ashamed of their country's approach to life. They think the American habit of rushing around, working overtime and weekends, and having multiple heart attacks and stress disorders is laughably sad.

We aren't having enough sex, drinking enough wine or stopping to enjoy la dolce vita , or the sweet life, I was told. I had plenty of time to think about this advice -- it was delivered during a three-hour lunch containing more courses than a college freshman's first semester.

As the owner of an exotic Italian vehicle, I now understand why parts orders can go unfilled for weeks and calls to suppliers in Italy largely go unanswered. For most of the month of August, the country is on vacation. Then it takes several more weeks for factories, banks and even donkey carts full of cheap tourist souvenirs to get back to full operating speed.

Much like CPT, Italian People Time was frustrating, even bizarre initially. Hotel rooms with old-fashioned dial telephones, resort towns with a single Internet connection and businessmen more interested in watching women's bottoms at the beach than studying the bottom line are odd concepts.

But if the trade-off is less stress, better food and fewer heart attacks, maybe the folks behind CPT and IPT are on to something.