Timing Is Everything

Time hasn't really stood still in the hills of Tuscany. It merely found its own pace, measured by the processes that have made the region famous and cannot be hurried

For example, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey, it takes time for the sun to ripen the grapes that end up in the barrels that age the wine known as Chianti.

The processes have no use for the computer-driven information age. And it has led to a complementary movement in urban areas. It's called, naturally enough, slow cities.

"We just try to share with others what we think is best for us," said Alessandra Molletti.

She spent eight years in New York and came back to work in the town of Greve when the mayor decided to join the "slow cities" movement — slowly, of course.

"To order things, it is not right," said Molletti. "We have to try to make people understand what is right, or not, or what is your idea, and to convince them in a low and sweet way."

Her boss, Mayor Paolo Saturnino, signs papers over a midday glass of wine in the central piazza.

"I decided that in this time of globalization, we needed to do some thing to, how do you say, ameliorate it," said Saturnino. "Globalization is inevitable … You can deal with it by annulling your identity or by preserving it."

Having an identity steeped in history helps. Giovanni Verrazzano, the navigator who discovered the site where New York City stands, was born in a villa in the hills above Greve. Three stones in the wall are from the base of the bridge that bears his name over the narrows. And American tourists love to come to Greve to slow down.

It means that the people who live here all the time have to work a little harder, but they've found ways to combine the modern and the traditional.

A 115-year old wine cellar that holds every one of Tuscany's more than 1,000 labels offers a high-tech way to taste 140 of them on any given day. And if you're not such an expert, you can ask advice from wine master Marco Mancucci.

"Here you can find the 'slow time' in the 'slow city' and you have the possibility to enjoy with tasting wine," said Mancucci.

Chicago high school teachers Ken and Susan Muir can attest to that.

"Even in Sonoma and Napa, when you're in the United States, you think you go there and everything is slow moving, and then you come here and you realize what relaxation really means. You come here and you know," said Muir.

"Slow cities" is a natural extension of the "slow food" movement. It was founded years ago to counter the invasion of American fast foods into the Italian lifestyle — a quiet revolt against the smell of burger joints in the piazza.

The air inside the 300 year-old Forlani butcher shop is redolent with the spices that add flavor to its unique salami. Gianni Forlani, the butcher, says it takes 15 minutes to make just one salami as opposed to 30 seconds for a machine-stuffed salami. In the end, the result is healthier and tastier, he said.

But even with the glowing endorsement of Forlani, strict Food and Drug Administration rules keep them from being sold in the U.S.

That is much to the dismay of tourists like Jeanie Davis who want to try everything.

"I think [the salami is] wonderful, I really do. I wish they had more of these back in the States. Really," she said.

Alas, the pigs that become the salami are very "slow cities" too. The unique Tuscan breed takes nearly twice as long to become barely two-thirds as fat as normal pigs.

And strange as it may seem, taking time to do things or just watch life go by is something that has to be worked at and earned.

"Slow cities" may be about tradition, but it is not an attempt to go back to the good old days because there weren't any.

In times past, Tuscany was a place of poverty, toil and disease.

Taking it easy was a luxury few, if any, could afford.

Now that most people can, the benefits would seem to be obvious.

"Babies are happier here," said Alessandra Molletti. "They can go around, they can go with the bike in the middle of the square. Everybody knows everybody."

Of course it would be even better if cars were banned from the main piazza, but if you're going to run a slow city, you have to make changes, well, slowly.

"The mayor is thinking about that for 10 years," said Molletti.

During which time there have been an admirable number of fine vintage wine years and lots of happy tourists.

But it's not a pace people there think every city should adopt.

"We like New York to be the way it is, have to be like that because we like to go there and go fast," laughed Molletti.

But that's just for a break because when it comes to actually living life, a "slow city" seems to be a concept ideally suited to the timeless processes of Tuscany.