possibly useful information on bathrooms

It is a rainy Monday morning here in Torino dear reader, and I have decided to share my opinions with you about the bathrooms here in Italy. If you have ever come here as a tourist, you already know what I am about to describe, but if you are one of our friends or family who will come visit us here, I think you should read this.

First of all I would like to differentiate between bathrooms in private homes, and public bathrooms. The former are pristine, spotlessly clean, and comfortable. There is almost always a bathtub and or a shower, a toilet, a sink and a bidet. I don’t know how I lived the first 34 years of my life without a bidet. Perhaps it has to do with the fact I was born and raised in the U.S.A., where no one I ever knew had one. I am writing the next part of this paragraph for fellow Americans who have never seen a bidet - Everyone else can skip it. I think they are such a useful invention. A bidet is a sort of a sink usually next to the toilet. Yes it is useful for washing feet, in warm water with available soap and a fluffy towel to dry, but it is also used for washing other body parts too, after one is finished with the toilet, and before pulling up jeans or patting down a skirt. It is very useful for a boy I know who still at his age has trouble wiping. A bidet allows him to easily clean himself, without taking a shower after going to the bathroom. Sorry, I got sidetracked on the subject of bidets, what I really want to stress is that in a casa here in Italy, the bathrooms are really clean.

On the other hand, there are the bathrooms available to the public. It is easy to find a bathroom in a shopping mall, or in a supermarket, but what do you do when you are walking around in a charming Italian village or city? I used to think that there weren’t nearly enough bathrooms available to the public. Not so. Everywhere you see a bar is a potential bathroom. I have never heard of anyone just going into a bar and asking to use their bathroom- what you should do is to order yourself a caffé, and then ask to use their bathroom. This usually involves some directions in Italian, going outside the actual bar, opening a very large wooden door with a huge key, going inside the courtyard and into a hard to find room attached to the backside of the bar... sometimes the door is labeled "Toilette" or "W.C." When you open the door, look around for a light switch. Sometimes there is a light that turns itself on as you open the door, and mysteriously turns itself off when you are halfway through your business in there. So be prepared for the unexpected.

First rule: Don’t touch anything. For some reason I don’t understand, people do pee in the bathrooms, but not necessarily exactly in the toilets.

Second rule: Don’t expect for there to be any toilet paper. Bring your own, in the form of tissue paper. If you are here long enough you will become really good at remembering the second rule.

Third rule: Don’t expect for there to be a sink. Sometimes there is though, but don’t expect for there to be any hand towels. Your tissues again are helpful for this if there is a sink.

Fourth rule: Don’t expect for there to be a toilet that looks like any toilet you have ever seen before. Sometimes you can find a normal looking toilet, that is simply lacking a seat. Sometimes it will be a "Turkish toilet" pictured later.

Fifth rule: The "flushing device" may be located almost anywhere. It can be a string you pull above your head, it can be located on the tank of the toilet, a button anywhere on the wall, or down on the floor as a sort of button you push with your foot. If you keep a sense of humor, and your tissue paper in your pocket, you can look at having to use the public bathrooms as a sort of adventure. After all, you never know what you’ll find! And, thank goodness you actually found a bathroom when you needed it, right?  Good luck!  ;)



Pictured above: a fairly clean (for a public bathroom) example of a "Turkish toilet."