ORIGINS
The classical Greek and Roman world attributed a key social and cultural role to walking. The daily life of upper- and middle-class citizens in ancient Rome, for instance, was often marked by the customary practice of visiting the purpose-built places found throughout the city, either on foot (ambulatio), or by litter (gestatio).
The Roman adoption of the Greek custom of walking the arcades flanking main squares led to the construction of covered walkways called portici. The Roman architect Vitruvius (c. 80-70 BC–c. 25 BC) explained how these sites were required to achieve the cultural and recreational aims of offering the people a pleasant and healthy environment, while aesthetically entertaining and educating them through the display of artworks. Colonnaded walkways were usually embellished with gardens and made available near theatres, temples, gymnasia, and public baths.
ORIGINS
Roman walkers also had a wide choice of open-air spaces, which included squares, like the Forum in Rome, where the poet Horace took his evening strolls and, above all, parks.
It is to the classical world, in fact, that we owe the modern and contemporary concept of public parks, such as those donated to Rome by the general and consul Pompey, the emperor Augustus, and, after his death, the dictator Julius Caesar. Gardens and parks were characterised by the presence of water in the form of fountains and other water features—as in the garden enclosed by the Porticus of Pompey—or nearby rivers, as was the case with the Tiber flanking the Campus Martius gardens, a popular meeting place for Roman society.
Thus, walking or being transported down the central avenues that crossed gardens and parks, or their multiple parallel lanes, was a refreshing activity during the long summers of the Greek and central-southern Italian latitudes.
ORIGINS
In addition to these pleasures, Roman gardens and parks were places for lovemaking and sexual encounters, facilitated by relaxed differences in social class. Catullus, in his Carmen 55, meets prostitutes in the Porticus of Pompey, and Ovid, in Tristia and Ars Amatoria, mentions it as a place where women would often go to seek lovers.
Either on foot or in a litter, traversing the portici in the winter evenings or visiting the forum at certain hours meant participating in the promenade, with all its social implications: meeting friends, interacting with people, performing erotic acts, looking and being looked at. Walking in places such as portici and gardens was anything but a lone activity, starting from the fact that it was carried out in the company of one or more people—as in the modern and contemporary promenade.
It is from this classical urban context that two fundamental types of promenade seem to emerge. Italian Renaissance admiration of the classical Roman world and the reinvention of its customs played a key role in the persistence of these two types of promenade and the manner in which they entered modernity.
ORIGINS
The first – the corso – is an everyday urban activity carried out during the day or in the evening, as a manifestation of the concept of otium. It is the promenade that Renaissance Italian citizens would perform in the squares, under the arcades flanking them, or along the corso. Its contemporary counterpart is found in the town and city promenades carried out on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon/evening, and Saturday afternoon.
The second type of promenade – the al fresco – is hot season specific and thus usually performed after sunset. It is traditionally justified and characterised by the pleasure of ‘taking the air’—the frigus (fresh air) which for the Roman poet Virgil was to be best found near rivers or holy springs and, for Aretino, whilst walking in fresh and airy places.