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

I grew up with a bidet and love them.
Currently, my sink is adjacent to my toilet. I've thought about whether it would be possible to have some kind of permanent shower attachment to my sink so I can have a bidet-style wash while sitting on the toilet (which is always impeccably clean).
I'm going to look it up!

Me too.

I'd love a bidet - I like to be clean after using the loo.

But this has always confused me, and I'm so British I've been to shy to ask. Yes, what ARE you supposed to do to dry yourself? I always use loo paper, but it's messy and...obviously not the right way.

Are you seriously suggesting that everyone who uses the bidet uses a fresh flannel each time? I wouldn't countenance re-using one, personally. Surely you don't????🤑

So..you'd have to have disposal bin full of these flannels, and wash how many every day on a hot wash?

Genuine question - I've always wondered how it works.

I have always wanted a bidet but never been seen one in real life. I am ordering a portable bottle one though.

All a bidet does is enable you to wash your bum without either a full shower, or undressing from the waist down to use a hand held shower attachment.

In your home or a hotel room you use your own towel (which I assume you would normally use after showering on your nether regions).

In hotels the bidet usually has a separate towel rail above it and little towels solely for bum use so arguably more hygienic. They also have hot and cold water.

(If you are out and about I do see the towel issue, but I haven’t really seen bidets in public loos. If there were a bidet I guess one would use loo roll to dry off)

I don’t have the manual dexterity to successfully use a bidet, I’d manage to drench myself from head to foot probably.

society needs the 3 seashells.

We have one, but no one uses it. Do you have a bum towel to dry yourself after? Do you share the towel? So confused! Or it is just for washing yourself so you don’t need to shower?

"It's my sister Violet! She's the one with a Mercedes, sauna, and a musical bidet. Classical, of course!"

I wish I had a bidet. When I was a child, my grandparents had one, which I was fascinated by, but I never understood what it was for. It was dark red to match the bathroom suite.

I would use it to wash my undercarriage (front and back) on a no-shower day. You would often find them in old fashioned bathrooms that didn't have a shower - hence more popular up to about the end of the 70s. Dry with my usual bath towel.

I'm not obsessive about washing after every bowel movement as it's not always possible, but I use aloe vera gel on toilet paper as the final wipe. There that's more than anyone needs to know about me!

They were very fashionable in the 70s.

My friend's parents had a bidet installed as part of their avocado bathroom suite in their 70s new build bungalow. Nobody explained what it was for so they thought it was a foot bath.

They were absolutely disgusted to find out what it was actually meant for.

How old are you ?
The were very fashionable in the 70s.

Though I still think nobody used them for the intended purpose, that was just how bathroom suites were sold then. Usually in 'avacadot' or pink, or canary yellow, or pale blue. They were great for washing feet though.

But, as @turkeyboots said, they were very much 'a fashion' and therefore rapidly fell out of fashion and were roundly mocked by the 80s and 90s.

Interesting, I've never kept my towel in a bedroom at home. Sometimes it's a thing when you are a guest in someone's house or in a holiday cottage with limited hooks

I don't think I've ever had a bathroom that would fit a bidet.

I'd love one of those whizzy Japanese bidet / drying toilets though.

A colleague used to use theirs to sit the Christmas turkey in to defrost. Said it was just the right size and shape and drained the water away easily.

Knowing that MNers often seek to be "disgusted", I'll add:
house was a new build so bidet had never been used;
bidet was in the ensuite bathroom and colleague was single so it never got used after they'd moved in;
no, there was never an occasion when I ate any of their turkey (but I wouldn't have minded).

I've owned one house that had one. Never used it and took it out to double the shower tray. Bliss.

I don’t think it’s odd at all. Do you think people in Italy are sitting around thinking it’s odd they have bidets and we don’t and debating how they can get rid of them?

toileting is different all round the world, nothing odd about it. Until globalisation we saw these things as part of the rich tapestry of cultural difference

A small squeezy bottle (similar to small washing up liquid) would do the trick wouldn't it? Fill it with nice warm water from the sink, do the biz, point and shoot directly at the relevant part, and dry with toilet paper. Save a fortune in plumbing and equipment. If you are so inclined. 😊

So what do essential bidet users do when they go out somewhere that has the ordinary facilities, sans bidet (even in Italian restaurants)? Shock horror, that is outrageous, install one immediately!

They have never been common here. I’ve never seen one in anyone’s bathroom or hotel here.

Me too! After the first use I was sold. Bought two more so I keep one in the bathroom, one in the downstairs loo and one at work! Much easier on the knees than hovering over a bidet. Takes up less space and less to clean, too. Squirt bottles are the future!

We have one of these!! Added bonus of being useful for cleaning the toilet

They were briefly a thing but were roundly mocked in the 80s and 90s and fell out of fashion. I remember using them to wash my feet as a child!

I’m not sure I’d be happy about lowering my arse into a public bidet. I won’t even sit on a public toilet. Imagine the amount of ‘particles’ in there!

Whatever you want. I use a bidet bottle and rinse with water after a wee, soap and water after a poo (helps prevent UTIs)

It is true. Got to be a completely separate water source