Italy's hard-won August break finds quieter echo in the Alps

In a commentary this week, the Guardian's Jamie Mackay traced the origins of Italy's month-long summer break, the villeggiatura, to the trade union victories of the 1960s, when workers secured some of the longest protected holidays in Europe. The essay, written from the Riviera di Ponente, notes how firms like Fiat and Olivetti once shut down for most of August, funding mountain retreats and seaside camps for employees and their children.

The piece draws a contrast between that era of strong unions and high productivity and what it calls our overworked age, asking whether the Italian ritual of a collective pause has lessons for the rest of Europe. For the Valle d'Aosta, the August closure is not a memory but a living rhythm: the valley's hotels and refuges fill with families from Turin and Milan, while many local businesses shut their doors for two weeks, in a pattern that has held for decades.