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News and views from the German-language region of Europe

December 31, 2006

"This isn’t Italy!"

Filed under Life in Europe

That’s what our new landlord told us when we rented a three bedroom apartment near Hannover, Germany in July 1982.

The apartment was on the middle floor of a three-storey building, and it had two balconies. laundry on Italian balconies One of them was on the master bedroom, and the other on the living room. Our landlord was letting us know that the house had a certain "image" since most of the people living there were in their own apartment condominiums, and he did not want us hanging our laundry out over the balcony for others to see. "This isn’t Italy" was how he explained the need to refrain from drying our laundry (most Germans do not use clothes driers – too much energy expense!) by hanging it over the balcony. Although Monica and I had been to Italy once some 9 years earlier, we hadn’t paid much attention to how Italians dry their laundry. So our year-end trip to Naples and the surrounding sites provided a chance to do so. Lo and behold, even in late December we saw laundry hanging from balconies. So even though we no longer live in that apartment, we now understand what our landlord meant. I guess our current apartment house has a different "image" since here in Bonn we often dry our laundry on drying racks we set up on our balcony. :-)

Paul Kieffer's blog with personal insights and news from the German-language region in Europe.

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