Potty Thoughts- Il Bagno Italiano

I was planning to do a post on the whole European bathroom experience, which is very peculiar, sometimes traumatic, and different in pretty much every country, but there are just so many things to say about Italian bathrooms alone, that I'll stick to the "bagno italiano" (italian bathroom) for the moment.

First of all, most toilets in Italy are completely different than the ones we're used to in America (yes, including Mexico and South America). The bowl is definitely smaller and kind of deeper. Also, there is never a handle or button anywhere near the toilet, nor a foot pedal on the floor... In most bathrooms there is either a button or a string high up on the wall (no kid could ever reach it without the help of an adult). Italian toilet tanks are mounted on the wall, so water comes out in a violent surge.



Although this process is extremely noisy, it's fast, convenient and easy to repeat without having to wait. Also, you can flush for as long as you want. In nicer bathrooms there are even flushes with on and off mechanisms, where the water will keep going until you push the button. That's quite a waste of water though.. not to worry, since there's plenty of water in Italy.

There is also a pronounced shortage of public toilets in Italy. In Murano, despite the huge amount of tourist visiting the island every day, finding a public restroom seems like an impossible task, so what you have to do after dancing around the whole island is stop at any small restaurant and ask if you can use it. You can't... Not unless you sit down and order something, not just a drink, but anything more expensive in the menu. So after going through this whole odissey, I finally got there to find something like this:

And this was a nice restaurant I swear, not some "shithole" like their restroom. So I went... and all I can tell you is I will never be able to think of myself as a classy person after having been there.

Far more humiliating are the public restrooms in the Milan Metro station, where you go in tiny stalls right in front of the crowded hallways, put in 1 Euro, and the door will close automatically. Then you can be there for 1 minute, and if you take longer, the door will open, also automatically, and I can only imagine the scene... Luckily, that time I was close enough to the hotel to spare myself the embarassment.

Something different about the bathrooms in Italy are the bidets, which can be found in almost every home and hotel bathroom, but that is a whole other subject, worth posting about later on of course...