“I’m just going to rest my eyes for a minute,” my dad told me after our Pasquetta lunch a few weeks ago. “You know, to gather my thoughts.” He plonked down in his armchair, reclined his head and in the span of seconds, began snoring. Half an hour later, he was up, ready to re-engage in our conversation and have another slice of pastiera. 

That, for those unfamiliar, was a pennica: the post-lunch nap that older generations of Italians–especially in the country’s central and southern regions–are masters of (though if you ask my father, he’ll say he was simply doing some “deep thinking”).