Allora oggi . . . it’s about road trips and public restrooms. Generally I find public restrooms, in particular public restrooms at servizio areas (gas/petro strations) disgusting. I prefer peeing in the woods along side the road rather than enter the germ filled nasty smelling, no toilet paper, rust stained sinks of the public restroom. The all time ghastly prize goes to a restroom in California’s central valley area but that’s another blog post. This blog post is about servizio in Italia. After two (due) caffes AND un cappacino, driving from San Giovanni di Piro to Positanto requires more than one servizio stop. At 12:30 pm in Italia it is challenging to find a parking slot at the station stop gli servizio is a happening place where Italians can find panini, café, and other road trip necessities. I swiftly found la donna restroom and there was not a huge line to get in. The Italians know that at the servizio there needs to be several stalls for women – no waiting. I have been told that Italians do not like standing in line; this would explain the additional stalls for women. As I enter the first available compartment the woman exiting tells me in Italian that the toilet didn’t flush, I go in anyway because I’m desperate. I wave my hand in front of the electronic sensing device, voila it flushes and this is when I notice that the toilet flush water is swirling just below the grate I am standing on. Yikes, the floor of the bathroom is a grate and all the toilet flushing is just an inch from my handmade Italian leather sandals. Next observation includes that the toilet seat is spring loaded so it goes down onto the porcelain only with constant pressure. Now I’m struggling to hold down the toilet seat, keep my purse on my shoulder because there isn’t a hook inside the stall, use my one available hand to place paper on the toilet seat AND sit down before the seat flips up. During this time the toilet must have flushed (on its own) at least four times and the previous woman couldn’t get it to flush just ONCE. Mamma mia, finally seated the toilet is flushing spraying water everywhere and swirling at my feet all at once. That is life on the road. Restate sintonizzati . . .
