I stretched the full length of the back, leaning over the windowsill with clothespins in one hand and washed the shirt in the other. Hang their washing out the window — picturesque details typical of the Mediterranean countries. However, it is not legitimate.
However, in my house, in the historic centre of Rome, many are engaged in this criminal business. It is practical and quite easy. I have two ropes on ten meters that go from my kitchen window to the neighbor’s. He has two of the same.
Silvio Berlusconi, an aesthete to the bone, in connection with the G8 summit asked all residents of the city of Genoa firmly to refrain from hanging Laundry outside. But this not only met with special understanding, but even cause political protests.
Today you can no longer hang washing across the street. The last rope that still remained on one of the streets in Trastevere, is no longer used. So decided the Roman Council. Many housing companies also have complex rules about how to hang Laundry on the balconies, along the walls and on the communal terraces. But I and my roommate Mario can continue to engage in this illicit activity, because we have a large patio.
When I moved in, the rope was irritating to me. Mario then had a wife and two teenage sons, he washed every day. At seven o’clock in the morning he is already starting to hang up clothes. Outside the window every morning nasty creak round the wheels on which hung a rope, waking me when I was going to sleep in. Today, he is a widower, and the children scattered. In the heart of Rome in the morning quiet and the birds sing.
Clothesline reveals your life. The whole house now knows that I have black pants and I don’t like boxers. And I know that the girl above me is wearing a beige bra and her tattered sheet.
Much more painful that everyone knows that I wear short socks to the ankle. Italian men who want to be elegant, I prefer high socks almost to the knee — hot and horribly ugly, I think! But according to Italian ideas, the most ugly in the world is when from under the pants you can see a couple of inches hairy legs. But not wearing socks at all, if you’re tanned, on the contrary, the most chic.
Posted in the street clothes may cause missedthe voltage and cause a quarrel. But not in my backyard. The sheet flutters in the sun and 30-degree heat dries in an hour. Of clothes dryers in the Italian capital a little.
