Italian Obsession with Cleaning, Part II

You may recall our last piece on the Italian obsession with keeping an immaculate home. Today I could not help but snap a few pictures as I caught my neighbor in the act.


Here's how it all went down. It's 7:30 AM on a rainy and dreary morning in Rome. As I wait for my coffee to brew, I stumble over to the window and see that my neighbor, a true creature of habit, has her yellow gloves on and is meticulously cleaning between each fold of the window shutters. She does this EVERY morning at 7:30.

Even while it is raining she cleans those bad boys, despite the fact that the rain will only bring down more dirt and soot onto her windows which she will annihilate tomorrow, I have no doubt.

 Did I mention what time it was??

Ah, and five minutes later, downstairs from Mrs. Clean, two of the cutest little old ladies I have ever seen were learning out their windows to gossip while it continued to drizzle down on this Roman street at 7:40 in the morning. Another day in Rome has begun my friends. Live and let clean...

If you want your house cleaned properly, ask an Italian.

Italians are the biggest neat-freaks in Europe, according to a recent reportbuyer poll. This comes as no surprise to me at all, given how for years I have felt nothing short of inadequate when it comes down to it. While I like to keep a tidy house, and even have household help to assist a few times a week, somehow there is always a hairball (from the dog-I hope) in the hallway or laundry basket that has spilled out onto the floor.

When I visit Italian friends I just sit and admire their spotless floors, sparkling appliances, and clean-as-a-whistle windowframes, doorframes, shutters, you name it. A few friends have admitted that if you open up cabinets or drawers, all hell breaks loose as toys, clothes and other incriminating evidence spill out all over the place. Yet still they manage to keep up with the appearance of an impeccably clean casa.


According to the study, Italians clean their house (not tidy, CLEAN) four times a week. There are very few things I manage to do four times a week. Cleaning the house, sadly, is not one of them. Hence it will be a long time before I get my house in gear and challenge any of them to a Betty Crocker clean-0ff.

On another note, the obsession with cleanliness does not count once the threshold to the outdoors has been crossed. At least in Rome, the streets are still a public dumping ground. The north of Italy is a bit less dirty, but still covered with graffiti and trash.


Study results from Reportbuyer.com