Harry Styles learnt "how to slow down" on his career break

Harry told The Sunday Times Magazine: "At the end of the tour, the idea of taking time out felt insane. I didn't know if I could do it.

"But it was the right time for me - we'd finished the tour in July, and I was turning 30 in February. It was time for me to stop for a bit and pay some attention to other parts of my life.

"Italy has become really special to me over the past few years. I drove from London to Rome during COVID, in that time when you could travel.

"I'd spent all my years before that touring - with little gaps in between - and if I had a week off, I'd never have driven somewhere, I would have got there and back as fast as possible.

"Presented with this time, I drove there - and I thought, I'm going to enjoy doing this. When I was in Rome, the city just taught me how to slow down."

The Watermelon Sugar performer even relished sipping on a hot coffee in a cafe - something he had not done in ages.

Harry continued: "Italy became so important to me because I was so used to everything moving so quickly and being on the go.

"But then I remember going to a cafe and sitting and having a coffee and thinking, 'I don't remember the last time I sat down and had a coffee - if I've ever sat down and just had a coffee.'

"I was suddenly learning, through my friends, that eating a meal is more than just sitting down and refuelling. I realised the pleasure in just being in the moment of what you're doing. The Romans are the best at that - that's their speciality.

"The pace they've taught me has been so special."

The downtime allowed the three-time Grammy award winner to be present in his baby niece's life.

Harry - whose new LP in four years, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally drops on March 6 - noted: "Also, in that time my sister [Gemma] had a baby - and at any other time in my life I would have missed a lot of that.

"To be there to get to know my niece as she's growing up, it's so obvious to me what's real. It was really obvious that was where I wanted to be."

Ultimately, adopting a slower pace to life has been "powerful" for the former One Direction boy band member.

Harry admitted: "I'd always thought, or hoped, that I was the kind of person who didn't need the dopamine hits that doing this job often gives you.

"But I hadn't actually removed myself from it, and it's hard to eliminate the doubt that maybe if it all went away, I'd really miss it.

"That's always been a fear for me. So living my life in a way where I could really like who I am away from this world has been so powerful for me.

"Without question, that has influenced the work I'm now making because it came from a place of pure freedom."

Deleting Instagram from his phone also made Harry feel better.

He added: "It was important to get away from the image I had of myself. Since I was young, I'd been seeing this version of me that other people see, and that was constantly being mirrored back at me.

"That's especially the case in the way we use social media now - for everyone - and I'm not immune to that.

"In having time away from everything, it's allowed me to have conversations with myself on a deeper level that I didn't have time to explore before.

"I've made small changes, like not having Instagram on my phone anymore. I feel so much healthier in my relationship with this world that I'm stepping back into."