They DO stare - but its OK - an old custom by icunme
I noticed immediately that people stare - expressionless - yet long and hard - until they have taken in all that they want to see. Now, we could note, the subject of their gaze determines whether this has been feast or famine. This excerpt from Henry James' account of his day in Villa Borghese in 1873 fairly references this local custom:"The great difference between public places in America and Europe is in the number of unoccupied people of every age and condition sitting about early and late on benches and gazing at you, from your hat to your boots, as you pass. Europe is certainly the continent of the practised stare. The ladies on the Pincio have to run the gauntlet; but they seem to do so complacently enough. The European woman is brought up to the sense of having a definite part in the way of manners or manner to play in public. To lie back in a barouche alone, balancing a parasol and seeming to ignore the extremely immediate gaze of two serried ranks of male creatures on each side of her path, save here and there to recognise one of them with an imperceptible nod, is one of her daily duties."