25 July 2016. Italian public bathrooms are often the target of jokes and complaints. The most offensive facilities have the infamous hole-in-the-floor squat or Turkish toilet. I walk away from those. I’d rather go in the woods. Then there are the WCs so small you cannot change your mind once you are inside. Many lack toilet paper or soap. And in Rome, we are cursed with many seatless toilets. They are supposed to be more sanitary and easier to clean. Clearly the invention of a man. Another classic is the lights, controlled by timers, that go out while you are seated leaving you in the dark.
Here in the north, in the beautiful Alto Adige, we have lovely clean bathrooms. Sometimes they are transgender, often they are spacious, and I do not think I have ever visited one that did not have soap. The most beautiful bathroom has to be this marvel of technology high in the Dolomites — in fact at 2153 meters/7063 feet above sea level — at the Rifugio Emilio Comici.
No question as to what is downstairs.
It’s easy to figure out men’s versus women’s no matter your native tongue.
Red handles indicate occupied.
Green handles indicate available.
So you go into a stall with a backpack, hiking poles, a jacket. Where to put your stuff? Each stall has generous and thematic hooks.
I am told that each urinal has an independent overhead light that comes on when you take your position. Photo by Ric Barton.
Lovely sinks, automatic faucet and soap dispenser, plus a built-in hand dryer!
Here is a close up of the sink. The “wings” on the faucet are actually Dyson dryers.
On the way out, the lighted stairway is enhanced with a skiing graphic.
