Progress?

You are my readers so you know I love all things Italian…well, almost. Consider our site visit today — la Villa Farnesina. When first built, it was a rural Renaissance villa erected on the south side of the Tiber across from urban Roma. A lovely little getaway, don’t you agree? Trompe-l’oeil is pervasive both in terms of its forced perspectives and its faux finishes. It’s pretty darned progressive for half a millennium ago. Now consider Italian appliances. What the #&*@ happened? The washing machine is more accessible than the one we had three years ago but its designers decided that the spin cycle could be omitted. OK if all wash consisted of permanent press. It would have been better to have saved on the cost of the second door. If that weren’t bad enough, Bill inadvertently opened the inner door before the wash cycle had finished. Water spilled onto the floor so nearly every towel in the apartment was called into service to contain the mess. We prevented any damage to the herringbone parquet floors by our quick action but now we had another load of laundry — towels — senza a spin cycle, or a dryer, or even a free-standing clothes-drying rack. Our laundry dries on 4 un-taut lines suspended over the tub. Perhaps this is why the Europeans favor bidets — tubs are inaccessible for bathing. In an effort to accelerate the drying process, I decided to iron wet towels and damp underwear. Tricia, the little Italian casalinga (housewife)! Now take a look at the iron. Where is the Italian design here? It looks like something out of the 19th century! The iron itself rests on a container that appears to have a thyroid condition. The cord is one of those woven fabric ones that I seriously doubt could pass code across the Atlantic. It turns out that the container holds water for the steam iron, lots of it, too. Despite its clumsy appearance, it actually worked pretty well and it packs a pretty powerful steam punch when you need it. Of course, I really didn’t need to use a steam iron on the wet towels. So if beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, then so, too, must be progress. Who needs trompe-l’oeil when you don’t have a dryer? Fortunately, Roman dogs need neither to lead happy little lives.