Vacations were spent by the sea or in the mountains; people listened to soothing operas like Puccini's La Bohyme and Madame Butterfly; the first silent-movies of The Last Days of Pompeii and Quo Vadis were made; one could partake in intellectual conversations in open air caf??s at the hour of the passeggiata.
More people could now afford to go on vacations, so they became very common at the time.