If life is stressing you out, you might be in need of a pausa (hear its pronunciation here).
As you might guess, it means a pause, and it sometimes refers to an intermission (though intervallo is more common).
Ci fu una lunga pausa nella conversazione.
There was a long pause in the conversation.
Deve essere sfuggito durante la pausa.
He must have slipped out during the intermission.
But most often, a pausa refers to a break or recess. A pausa pranzo is a lunch break, a pausa caffè, a coffee break, and a pausa sigaretta, a cigarette break.
Dov'è Paolo?
È in pausa pranzo.
Where's Paolo?
He's on his lunch break.
Andiamo da Franco per la pausa caffè, vuoi venire?
We're going to Franco's for our coffee break, do you want to come?
If you want to specify duration, you say either the length of time followed by ...di pausa or una pausa di... followed by the length of time, so un'ora di pausa or una pausa di un'ora is a one-hour break.
Facciamo una breve pausa.
Let's take a short break.
And where in English we talk about needing a break, Italians say they 'have need' of a break, using the formulation avere bisogno.
Ho bisogno di una pausa dal lavoro per riprendermi.
I need a break from work to recover.
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