La Toilette

We noticed that we had started to write a lot about our traveling experiences and were forgetting to mention some of the random happenings and observations that occur on a daily basis. This particular post is about one of the more notable differences we have encountered since the beginning of our stay, la toilette (twah-let-tay).

*Warning*: If you are expecting the usual pictures of gorgeous landscapes or breathtaking architecture then you may want to stop now.

Oh, the lovely toilets in Italy. I have yet to travel outside of Italy, so I'm not sure if these beauties are found in the rest of Europe (my hunch says yes), but hopefully I can at least surprise those of you who have not traveled to Europe before.

I'll start with my favorite breed: floor toilet

Thankfully this is a pretty rare find. It seems like they can usually be found in old buildings. I won't go into a detailed description, I think the picture pretty much speaks for itself. But... I do want to point out that this was in the women's restroom. Not just men get the luxury that is the "floor toilet."

Far more common is a lack of toilet seat. It is usually either missing altogether or at least comes in a much narrower form than the ones back home.

In my apartment's case, they even come in fishy varieties.

What you can't see in these pictures is the flushers. Not one toilet here has a handle flush on the side of the toilet. Here the flushers come in many varieties. For example, some have buttons on the wall to push, large pads or pedals on the floor to step on, or an option to start and stop your own flush (which isn't such a bad idea considering the western world's water consumption). However, I found out the hard way that not all contraptions near a toilet are meant to flush it. One of the first weeks here, I went in to a discoteca to use the restroom on a Friday or Saturday evening out and about in Torino. I saw a string coming from the ceiling of the restroom, and I pulled on it expecting it to flush the toilet. It didn't seem so unreasonable to me seeing as I had seen many pictures of toilets with chain flushers. Anyway, I pulled on the thing and to my dismay the toilet did not flush, but instead a loud alarm sounded. Dallan and Alex were waiting for me outside and said that the neat blue lights that came from the floor suddenly turned red just as the ringing began. Turns out I had tripped some sort of alarm meant to be pulled in the event that you injure yourself or come to harm in the restroom, but I would like to note that not one person came to my aid.

-Ashley