Bathrooms in Italy
It has become traditional to comment on bathrooms first thing when I return from a trip. So here we go again.The second (or third? life becomes confusing when you change 9 time zones) day, we ate at a place in the Piazza Navonna in Rome, and here is the sign so you know where to go. Although it is a little misleading, there was no bathtub. And it was unisex. But it looks very...genteel....I guess you would say.
As the trip went on, though, I discovered no cutesy little signs, just the general figures like you would see in any airport. Kind of disappointing -- don't Italians have any sense of humor? The place is full of naked statues -- men, women, real and mythical creatures -- and they are anatomically correct (except when broken) so it isn't like they are, um, shy or anything.
Then I began to notice something: They decorate their bathrooms. This is one in Capri (accent on the first syllable, by the way):
This is a public bathroom, and it was really cool! Then there was this restaurant bathroom in Florence (which, by the way served an excellent bean soup, but there was no direct connection):
We do this in the nicer restaurants -- Olive Garden springs to mind for some reason.
I should also mention bidets. All the hotel and bed and breakfast bathrooms had them, and I contemplated using them. I looked up directions on the internet, and decided not to when they said you don't actually sit down on them, you hover over them. My knees immediately vetoed THAT idea!
Other scattered thoughts about bathrooms: There are no lids in Italy. Just warning you. They are not broken, they were never designed to have them at all. Also, you can never tell (even in America) when the soap or water or towels were automatic...when means you feel like an idiot when you realize the sensor isn't broken, there just isn't one. And people were watching you. Also, it is not possible to dry your jacket on the hand dryer in the bathroom at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence. It isn't strong enough. (And it cost me 1 euro to find that out.) More on that later.
Aside from all that, Italians are really considerate. In nearly every bathroom I came across, they had something like this:
posted by Marion @ 10:58 AM
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