I take it you've never been to southern Europe before?The further south you go, the more laid back people get. Eventually, they are positively horizontal a lot of the time. Certainly, during the summer in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece etc. Italians have their 2 hour lunch breaks, Iberians their siesta and it's a wonder the Greeks ever get anything done. It's a tradition built on it being too damned hot to even think about doing anything energetic in the middle of the day. Noel Coward got it wrong. It's not so much mad dogs and Englishmen, it's only mad dogs, northern Europeans, particularly Anglo Saxons, that go out in the midday sun. Go anywhere else on the planet where the midday temperature is in excess of 90º and everything stops for an extended lunch in the shade or a leisurely nap.