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Slow Drive, the New Way of Moving Along

Slow Drive - Manifesto for Conscious Mobility

How many of us have, let’s say within the last five years, experienced a sunrise or sundown, sitting on a meadow, without typing or swiping on a smartphone or without constant looks at the watch to make sure not to miss an extremely important appointment? How many of us have considered the following when starting their journey: “I have a couple of hours, so I won’t take the motorway, but secondary roads so that I can enjoy the views along the way”?

Let us think about it: Do we miss those things? Or: Have we ever had them?

Starting from these considerations, the Fiat 500 Club Italia launches a new movement that is supposed to fuel the public debate towards a particular aspect of mobility: moving slowly, travelling consciously and pleasurably.

Slow Drive

Can we do without motorways in the century of globalisation? Or without the journey around the world in 80 hours instead of 80 days, which, by the way, Jules Verne found to be extremely fast? There might be three answers to this question: Yes, no and perhaps.

Yes: If we really want it, we can do without this stress.

No: We have already surrendered to this fast-paced way of living.

Perhaps: Yes, but not at once, if “Slow Drive”, this new movement of pleasurable travelling, wins through. We can change our way of living if we want to.

In fact, the first step would be to change our mindset and our lifestyle. Sometimes it is okay, or even indispensable, to rush from one job to the next, but this is not always the case. We are, though, constantly in a hurry, even if it is not necessary. Why is that? Maybe because we believe to save time this way.

But is it not true that we rather miss opportunities when behaving like that?
Let us get back to real travelling! Travelling does not mean just driving from A to B. It is a way of moving that leaves its mark on us in one way or another. If we are not in a hurry, why do we behave as if we were losing time?
So let us stay away from the motorways, let us forget about the time between entering and exiting the motorway in which we drive as if we were in a competition, let us avoid the boredom and stress of obsessive driving.

Slow Drive

We, the Fiat 500 enthusiasts, have realised this long ago, simple because our travel companion is a vehicle that is anything but fast and because we have decided to spend our Sundays and weekends – and even sometimes our holidays – enjoying motoring tourism, meeting like-minded people. On these occasions, we get to enjoy the journey itself, discover new destinations by driving from town to town, from hill to hill, from bend to bend, cherishing the joy of discovery like a child!

Let us regain the landscape, its special features, its peculiarities. When we are driving on a motorway, when we are stuck in never-ending tunnels or when our view is obstructed by high hedges or noise barriers, we can only guess that villages, forests, fields, rivers or beaches and people are hidden behind them. The secondary roads – in the mountains or by the sea – follow the landscape instead, allowing us to enjoy it. Some roads even deserve to be called “panoramic roads”, which is certainly not by chance. But all of them offer unexpected views to the travellers and are sometimes worth taking a break.

Slow Drive

Think more slowly. Live more slowly!

Drive more slowly – and enjoy the beauty of the world around you.

Source: Fiat 500 Club Italia