Laundry

Wet. Soaked. Dripping. That describes the laundry left since yesterday hanging outside our apartment balcony. We woke up to a hard rain this morning in Torino. If the rain doesn’t stop soon I’ll go retrieve it and move it all to the clothes lines installed over the bathtub in one of the bathrooms, and later to the dryer. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones who has a dryer! Since moving here I have learned that it is not the norm to use a dryer. I don’t know how my Italian neighbors manage. With a household of four people, I do a lot of laundry! Even with every available clothesline used, inside and outside the house it still takes a long time to dry. Sometimes it takes days to dry in this humidity. Before I had a dryer, sometimes I would use the iron to help expedite the drying process. I never thought I would see myself ironing socks or underwear.... but when the boys needed them dry for school, I did! That brings up a funny memory for me. I was still living in Oregon, and had the opportunity to take an Italian class before moving here. The instructor was talking about ironing... how even now when he goes back to Italy his mother would still iron his underwear... how all the Italian Mamme iron Everything. Well, I rarely have enough free time. But I just have to say, Italian moms will do almost anything to take good care of their children, and make them feel cherished. My hat is off to them.