Now, this is the only one of these I have seen in Italy. It has a rather pleasing name too: vespiasiano. So much nicer than urinal. This one looks rather, er, well used. I understand that there are lots of vespiasiani in Blighty still, most of them designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.
13 comments:
You, Ron Combo, are taking the piss.
Looks like it might pong a tad!
Actually Ron, there aren't nearly enough vespiasianis in Blighty. So great is the problem that some councils are, very sensibly, encouraging local businesses to allow members of the public to use their loos. The shop or restaurant gets a discount on their rates and the over-stretched council doesn't have to maintain stinky bogs. What a good idea.
I had heard of these vespiasiani, but never seen one. Have you seen the female, bidet-like version down in the South? Quite common around Bari, Brindisi, Taranto, they are called lambriettasiani.
Oh very good Affa. Knew there was a scooter gag there somewhere; top marks.
PS I'm listening to the incomparable Goon Show on Radio 7; bliss.
I must say at first glance I thought it was a bus shelter. Very like the cast iron ones that still grace streets in Northampton, used very much for the same purpose.
I prefer alfresco..but this would do.
Ron Combo, I salute you. There used to be a structure very similar to this on the Thameside promenade at Caversham. One day, about 20 years ago, I saw Rodney Bewes go into it carrying a bag of onions.
Time passed, and it was moved in one piece to the open air museum at Chalfont St Giles.
I do hope I have brought a breath of the Thames Valley into your life.
Mrs.Pouncer. What a lovely name. Are you by any chance related to Pouncer Palmer who once worked at the Greenwich Maritime Museum? Don't be embarrassed to admit it, should you be she. Oh, and lovely comment. Rodney Bewes and onions. My day is now complete.
Peter Ashley; how wholesome you seem. I am no relation to Pouncer Palmer, for which I thank the good Lord above, but I am cousin to Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, who now lives in Marlow. I will visit you with all haste, but this morning I am to ride through Maidenhead thicket on my maddened old mare - we have snow on the ground here this morning! It is too charming for words.
Oh Mrs. Pouncer, I can see you now. Snow, trees, a horse. Very Robert Frost's 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening':
'He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake'.
Don't you two bother about the rest of us, just carry on.
We will Ron. Now then, Clarissa, if I may call you that...
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