la dolce vita
Pleasure-seeking lifestyle
La dolce vita is Italian for "the sweet life," referring to a lifestyle of pleasure, luxury, and carefree indulgence.
The phrase evokes glamorous leisure—Mediterranean beaches, elegant parties, beautiful people with no particular obligations: After retiring early, he's been living la dolce vita in the south of France.
It gained currency from Fellini's 1960 film of that name, depicting decadent Roman high society.
- satisfactionState of fulfilled desires
- pleasureHappy, satisfied feeling
- RomeItaly's capital city
- aperitivoPre-dinner drink ritual
- al fresco diningMeals taken outside
fun · lifestyle · golden age · indulgence · communal dining · wealth · women · social graces · Italy · Fellini · Italian cinema · luxury · experience · hedonism · hospitality customs · wine · family gatherings · tradition
- ItalyRome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples
- 20th Century ItalyMussolini, fascism, neorealism, economic miracle, Christian Democrats
- coffeehouseespresso, Turkish coffee, latte, barista, macchiato
la dolce vitamisery
Intense prolonged distress
suffering · poverty · hardship · wretchedness · destitution
la dolce vitaasceticism
Severe self-denial practice
austerity · self-denial · monasticism · puritanism · abstinence
la dolce vitadrudgery
Hard, boring work
toil · nose to the grindstone · wage slavery · rat race · Protestant work ethic
dolce, vita, vital, vitality, vitalize, revitalize, devitalize, viable, viability