AIBU to wonder why bidets are common in Italy but not England?

Yes of course I have been to Milan ot is honestly fuck all like Hull.

Oh really. Have you ever actually been to Bergamo, Milan, or Bolzano? They’re very similar to Hull or Manchester in winter where I’ve been many times. Please stop generalising if your only reference is a short holiday in Florence. I’ve lived for years in different cities in both countries. The way some people in England talk about the weather here, using it as an excuse for everything, including still having carpet everywhere as if it were still the 80s as if it’s unbearably cold, is just exaggerated. You’re not living in Siberia.

When I moved in with exH his shower had a loose head and hose that was clipped to the wall / shower structure so it couldn’t be used freely. I hacksawed the clip off after a while.

The shower in our en suite was like that, and I did the same.

You can get showers that have both a rainfall and a detachable shower head. They are not that expensive. I like the rainfall for washing my hair.

What I am finding bizarre about some of the responses on this thread is the belief that using a bidet is somehow more dirty than just using toilet paper. So:

1. Do you all use the same towel? No. Why do so many people assume this?

2. You will get poo on your hand/in the water. No. You use toilet paper first. Granted your hand does then touch your bum/bits but I assume that you wash your arse properly in the shower which involves your hand touching your bum.

3. You will create a bacterial breeding ground unless you use soap. No. Europeans do use soap with a bidet. Anyway, even if not used (cf Japanese toilet which squirts water but not soap up there) it still gets your bum cleaner than using toilet paper.

4. Miscellaneous fear of developing some sort of bum flu due to cold water on the arse in winter. No. Bidets have hot and cold water…

How does it work with bidets?

Do you skooosh your bum every time or is it just after poos?

Do you have a wet bum afterwards? So you need bum towels? Do you share bum towels or does everybody have their own personal bum towel.

If you have visitors, do you give them a bum towel?

They're extremely common in Finland, which is a much colder climate than the UK. But we heat our homes properly so our bathrooms aren't actually cold and damp.

Same. Do you hover or sit your weight on it? Do you fill it with water like a sitz bath? And the bum guns, how does it not spray water everywhere? I am hugely in favour of good hygiene

agreed on proper shower hoses though. When I moved in with exH his shower had a loose head and hose that was clipped to the wall / shower structure so it couldn’t be used freely. I hacksawed the clip off after a while.

You still use toilet roll beforehand.

We don’t have a bidet, but all but one of our toilets has a hose, with one having a Japanese toilet seat instead. I do find it off that bidets and hoses are unusual in the UK, but I also find it odd that until fairly recently it wasn’t unusual for their not to be a sink in with the toilet in a lot of UK bathrooms, surely a sink in the loo is more useful than a sink by the bath.

Never knew that! Not that I have investigated the topic 😂 but now I’m wondering why!?

The weather in Northern Italy is not like England in the winter. Please come to Manchester, Liverpool or Hull in December or January no way is that the same as Florence.

Also I don't want to wash my v. thick takes ages to dry hair everyday or get it wet before work on a freezing january morning.

Can I be honest and say I’m not really sure how they’re used?!

They’re an historical practical hygienic solution in countries where the water supply is limited or inadequate and showers impractical to install, and people in this country aren’t keen on the idea of washing their bums, I’m not sure why (I can remember the days when hard shiny Izal toilet paper was thought effective).

You will see I wrote: “in our village” and “SOME of the south”. Not talking about the whole of Italy at all. No need to be defensive, it’s not an attack.

It just seems unnecessary to me, for the average person. Wiping and a daily shower suffices for most people, and if needed on a hot day or prior to sex, a quick sponge bath with a wet flannel in front of the sink is just as good for a 'freshen up' for armpits/sweat/genitals, and doesn't require faffing about with a bidet.

We had them growing up. As did grandparents.
They take up space though so no longer put in. Hoses are much more convenient but you need to have a special valve or they can contaminate the water supply.

We had one in Dublin, Ireland in the 80's. Did not notice if the norm or not but we were not exactly millionaire status family although we did move to a 'better' area and no bathrooms had one and I haven't noticed one in a home since being honest.

Please stop talking as if your experiences represent the whole of Italy. I’m from the north and have never had issues with droughts or not having running water. We take baths. The whole of Italy isn’t like a small rural village. I’m from a city, and I’ve always used a bidet like most Italians. It has nothing to do with water shortages.And yes, it’s hotter in the summer, but in winter the weather is very similar to England. And for the English folks: to dry yourself after using a bidet, you use..wait for it.. a small towel! The same way you dry yourself after a shower or a bath. Crazy, I know.🙄

Usually there are small fabric cloths (eg: mini towels) to dry off and then a bucket to put them in for washing.

I always feel weird about putting toilet paper in the basket next to the toilet as the drains can't cope (even with the soft stuff that disintegrates when wet. Has to be emptied by someone

Im always curious about liking them so much. Unless you are using soap, cleaning properly like a shower there, then drying fully, it just creates a breeding ground that will create far more bacterial growth than just wiping would.

But I haven't used one, so is that how it works?

Even then doing that every time I go to the toilet, for what amounts to zero health benefit unless you are unpleasant in some other ways, still seems like an annoying waste of time.

A few years ago we went to Morocco, and I came back to our hotel bathroom to find my lovely Liz Earle facecloth on the side of the bidet. The lovely cleaner bless her had used it as a cleaning cloth for the bidet. Had to throw it away...

I gave birth twice in Italy,bliss afterwards having a bidet.