My wonderful new apartment, which is more like a house, is comprised of three inhabitants, two cats, and now me. Lucia (Riedi) and Massimo (Bracchitta) own the place. She's completing a joint degree in law and notary (I have no idea why, but in Italy becoming a notary is much more rigorous than in the US, and it takes 6 years to get through the schooling) and he is a regional manager for an insurance company. Massimo told me that he wrote a book about Jews and Baptists in Europe, and he published ten copies. Soon, he says, one of these copies will be mine, as a housewarming present. (Whenever I learn strange things like this I always wonder how much is being lost through the language barrier.) Anyway, Lucia and Massimo are both 33. There's also Anna, who's 20. She's English. She heads to France at the end of January, and I'll get her beautiful room then - it has a terrace and a persimmon tree right outside the window. For now I'm all the way downstairs, in a huge half-basement room that (fingers crossed) will be very nice and cosy once I'm done with it.
I woke up this morning to the most amazing fog - it was the thickest I've ever seen, even in the middle of the city. It even had a smell - very damp and sort of musty. (For some reason it reminded me of a museum, but I couldn't think of which one.) Apparently in the countryside it gets so bad that it's difficult to move around outside. In the car with Lara, on the way to work, I felt very grateful that she knows the way so well. Otherwise we would've gotten lost or killed. And unlike the fog I've seen before, which seemed like a morning-dew type of thing, this actually got worse as the day went on. It's just starting to clear up a little, at 9:00 pm.
Now that I've hit the two-week mark, many pressing questions have emerged and I'd appreciate some answers if anyone has them. The most confounding thing is the bidet. I can't believe that something that is so ubiquitous here - even in public bathrooms! - is something that's never seen in the US. And yes, I do know what it's for, but I still don't understand how exactly it fits into the average Italian's daily routine. It doesn't help that last week one of my coworkers commented that it's strange that Americans shower so much instead of using a bidet. Then I became really confused. Is a bidet a shower substitute? A shower companion? Do people actually use it in public bathrooms? Are Americans perceived as dirty because we don't use them, at least culturally? Can anyone explain this? (Feel free to email me with the answer. But other people might want to know.)
3 comments:
Let me put my few words on the "bidet." The Europeans use "bidet" as a substitute to everyday shower as the Americans have unlimited water resources available to them at low cost. It is a simple luxury the Europeans (and more so the rest of the world do not have). The bidet is exclusively intended to clean the lower part of the body if and when needed. Similarly, the Turks as well as the North Africans and Middle Easterners use a tiny water faucet attached to the western toilet to do the same. The old-fashioned Turkish toilets, called "toilet a la Turc", have a faucet as well allowing the person to wash herself/himself with the left hand only (never with the right hand because it is for eating among the Muslims). The European, North African or Middle Eastern cultures believe in cleaning oneself with water after using the bathroom (not waiting to take a shower every morning as the Americans or the Anglo-Saxons do)... I am open to suggestions if any one your commentators want to negate me. Keep on observing, my dear Emma, and keep asking questions... I loved the photo of the flowers, known as "siklamen" in Turkish, but I do not know the Italian or the English word. My favorite flower... I well know that you will blossom as beautifully as those plants in Italy. Lots of love...
The bidet also makes an excellent baby bath.
Be careful not to pull a Crocodile Dundee and use it as a water fountain.
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