LisaKinVA Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 This article says it all. http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=10209&browse-by=Culture-Customs&level=Insider-Florence 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 This article says it all. Ah, no....no....it leaves out those perplexing holes in the ground that scare Americans: The unfitting named Turkish Toilet, often found just where you least expect it. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggie96 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 I spent a week in Italy this past February. I had never been good at squatting, but 10 days of lots of wine, long winter coats, multiple layers, and Italian toilets made me an expert! I was also very glad I did not have my kids with me. :) The toilets were very, very gross. Very gross. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That sounds a lot like toilets in Mexico and I've used pretty much the same rating system. :) I also learned quickly to check in odd places for the toilet paper before entering the stall- it could be anywhere in the bathroom and it isn't very convenient to discover too late that there actually was toilet paper but I didn't see it on the chair in the corner. Our current toilet seat in our bathroom at home doesn't match the toilet. Seems appropriate. In Kyrgyzstan you usually get a squat toilet at best. Bring your own toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Personally, I prefer public squatters to public toilets. Much less touching of anything. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibiche Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That sounds a lot like toilets in Mexico and I've used pretty much the same rating system. :) Yep. But at least in Italy one can flush the toilet paper (if one can find it, that is lol)! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Yep. But at least in Italy one can flush the toilet paper (if one can find it, that is lol)! Meh. That feature is overrated. ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 :lol: When I was a teen, my family did one of those 'if it's Tuesday, we must be in Belgium' bus tours of quite a few European countries. I remember being so horrified at the public toilet conditions in Italy (many at that time were just the holes in the ground) that I said I would wait to use the bathroom until we got back to France. :laugh: (I think that was going to be two days.) I have since been back to Italy a few times (to the Dolomite area for skiing & hiking). Even in public restrooms, I've had good success there -- only one hole-in-the-ground toilet (at one of the hiking trails). I had hoped that it meant the entire toilet situation throughout the country was improving, but maybe that's not the case based on the article.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Yep. But at least in Italy one can flush the toilet paper (if one can find it, that is lol)! But, that doesn't mean people do...yeah, I know what you're referring too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura in CA Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 In Korea, as soon as we got out of the main tourist areas (& even many times at major attractions such as palaces), many of the restrooms had mostly squat toilets, with maybe one stall marked "for foreigners" :rofl: with a sit-down toilet. My boys quickly became adept at squatting, since sometimes that was the only option. My dad grew up with this until he came to the U.S. at age 20; he claims squatting is more "natural" ... but in practice he loves the creature comforts here. :DI remember at a café in Paris in the 1980s seeing a chic young woman come out of the ladies' room; imagine my surprise to discover that the toilets were all squat-type! :blink: ETA: TMI alert! It is hard going the other way, too ... I know Vietnamese and Indian women here in the U.S. who are not used to our toilets & still squat -- but on the toilet seat! Since their feet have been on the seat, I use those paper seat-protector-thingies when I know someone has been putting her feet on the seat ... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Oh those Italian toilets! Our trip decades ago the first "Turkish" toilet we came across was at a fast food place - ghastly. Then later at Boboli Gardens in Rome I had the , well, "trots" and needed to use the facility. There was an old lady in charge who had to be paid first, then she'd hand over three, THREE, small squares of toilet paper. Um, not nearly enough. We took to carrying our own tissues around just for using the facilities. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TianXiaXueXiao Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 The toilets in Italy helped prepare me for what I would later encounter in China, almost. In the school where I taught we had the single trough toilet that was partitioned off for individual users by short squatting stalls. You must be careful when you enter the stall because it's all tiled and rather slick. You must straddle the trough and drop your drawers. Yes, the water flushes from one end of the trough to the other. No, you do your best not to look down if you aren't in the first stall. In the countryside, there is a similar system only there's no flushing and no stalls. You walk around the side of the building marked for women and traverse the parallel planks of wood that hover mere inches above the open pit of sewage. There are no stalls and there's no point in waiting for privacy. You could wait all day. You keep toilet paper on you at all times. Public bathrooms rarely supply any except in places like super markets, hotels, and upscale restaurants where often there are also more advanced bathroom fixtures and sometimes even a porcelain throne! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweiss Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 We were just in Italy a few weeks ago. Fortunately we didn't encounter any one-star bathrooms, but we did go to several that were less than optimal. I have to admit that I only used a bathroom when we were out if I absolutely had to. I tried to hold it until we went back to the hotel. LOL! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Ha! Italy is on my least favorite places to revisit for this very reason. Think the toilet situation there is bad? Imagine having to use them being disabled:) sooo gross. I am unable to 'hover' if you will so I had to get VERY creative! And my wheelchair would rarely fit so I ended up having to get across the floor without it. I actually once wrapped my hands and knees in disposable plastic bags it was so gross, lol. Ah, but I was young and adventurous and wanted to see Italy! And it WAS worth it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 I've often bragged that I successfully used a hole-in-the-ground 'toilet' on a moving train in Taiwan WITHOUT getting anything on my shoes. The trick was to step outside and THEN flush. At least it was fresh all the time since there was no holding tank. The stuff just landed on the tracks. I don't remember Italian toilets being particularly bad. But, then I always had those travel packs of Kleenex, and I can hover. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happi duck Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 I.might.never.travel. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Granted, it has been a couple of decades since I was in Italy but I do not recall any horrible public restrooms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnold Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Granted, it has been a couple of decades since I was in Italy but I do not recall any horrible public restrooms. We were there a couple years ago, and I too don't remember any horrible restrooms. Maybe we didn't travel to the "right" places in order to have a bad experience. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 Granted, it has been a couple of decades since I was in Italy but I do not recall any horrible public restrooms. If you stop at the large restaurant rest stops/gas stations on the autostart, they are usually good. The regular rest stops are holes in the ground. Restaurants are hit and miss. You cannot tell from the outside what the toilet room might be like. We ran into the pay first 3 squares at a restroom in Verona, I couldn't use the pay toilet at the park in Avellino...I've been in cleaner portapotties at construction sites. My parents have some stories :) The part about finding toilet seats to fit your toilets...absolutely 100% accurate, as is the lack of soap, paper towels or working dryers. The average public restrooms in most restaurants didn't have those. Most I've been to were clean enough, most had toilet paper. But we've been enough places that I know it's better to stop at the big shopping mall than a quick in and out at the much more convenient the coffee bar. Keep in mind that public urination and defecation happens frequently here, too. While it's not Rio, or a developing country, it can be a bit shocking. We had a really bad storm last week, and the road running in front of the base was a river of raw sewage (systems backed up into the streets out of the manhole). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Nothing, and I repeat nothing, will ever gross me out as much as a toilet I had to use on the border between Egypt and Gaza 20 years ago. It had to be done and no toilet or squatter has ever even come close to that thing. A squatter would have been a million times preferrable. I can carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer and everything else since then has been a piece of cake in comparison. Hand sanitizer in particular makes international bathrooming so much more pleasant. One of my favorite memories will always be delicately teaching my 65yo (at the time) mother to use a latrine in the remote mountains in Kyrgyzstan because I could not let her not go for two days. She was an amazingly good sport and laughs about it now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 I once stayed in the French Legionnaire's barracks on the Riviera. We managed to build one box with an American seat on it, but if you didn't want to wait in line you used the remaining "bombardier toilets." We were young, fit, and wearing combat boots, so it wasn't too bad once you adjusted to the idea of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 When I was at the ripe age of 14, I went to Italy for the summer to visit my sister who was living there at the time. It was my first foray outside the good ol' USA. I was MORTIFIED at the hole-in-the-ground public toilet. I decided I NEVER needed to go that badly. (I was also mortified at the stinky Italian armpits that no one else seemed to notice. Gag!) ETA: I should mention that my time in Italy was limited to the island of Sicily only. No time was spent on the mainland. I won't name any countries or start any fights, but I have noticed that EVERY foreign country I've visited has a higher tolerance for the 'natural' odor of people than we seem to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 *crosses Italy off my bucket list* *will wait for the Pope to come here instead* :o 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthwestMom Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Well, we were just at the touristy stuff last month, and while we did encounter a few toilets with no seat, I didn't see ANY "holes in the ground" ones. And Martha, there is a very cute cafe across from the entrance of the Vatican that sells you access to their bathroom for .50E, and gives you toilet paper when you pay. It was clean too. :lol: :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Well, we were just at the touristy stuff last month, and while we did encounter a few toilets with no seat, I didn't see ANY "holes in the ground" ones. And Martha, there is a very cute cafe across from the entrance of the Vatican that sells you access to their bathroom for .50E, and gives you toilet paper when you pay. It was clean too. :lol: :lol: My kids brought up an interesting pondering... "Ack?! How does the pope keep his robes so WHITE?!" A reflection of my well established inability to not keep my clothes tidy and infamy as a clutz. I can't go a single day without changing my shirt or my pants bc of some mishap or other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Sounds like the toilets in Spain. Must be a southern Europe thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.