Bathrooms in Rome

Bathrooms in Rome are the most hit and miss thing about our trip there.  Either they are very nice with marble and sparkling clean or...they're not. What they are is a notch above a hole in the ground. 

One thing I found that was very nice was the stalls felt more private.  I felt this immediately upon deplaning and using the facilities at the airport.  The doors on individual stalls go all the way to the top and bottom so you felt you were in your own small bathroom and not just a "stall".  This trend continued throughout my bathroom experiences in Rome (never thought that would be a sentence I would utter in my life) and now I am wondering why in America we insist on leaving a foot gap at the bottom and several feet at the top.  We only cover from shin high to just over our heads.  That is kind of weird and now that I've used the public restrooms in Rome, I would like to start a campaign to change our public restrooms here.  Well, change them to the ones that that are better than a hole in the ground.

Some of the worst bathrooms had doors that didn't lock (these were one stall type bathrooms) and several did not have toilet seats.  No toilet seats!  As a woman, your only option was to squat.  These were not in bad establishments, just your run of the mill places to grab a quick bite. Bathrooms were not always in convenient places either.   In one place my mom had to walk behind a wall and down a spiral staircase to get to the bathroom.  I did feel like the nicer restaurant (not more expensive always) the nicer the bathroom. 

Another thing I noticed was the sinks in about half of the public bathrooms I used had a lever on the floor to push with your foot (instead of a handle to turn) on and off he water in the faucet.   Genius.  I've only seen this a couple times in the states, but really, why don't all public bathrooms have this?  It feels cleaner when I don't have to touch a faucet that someone else just used after they used the bathroom.   I am wearing shoes, so nothing is touching my skin and think that should be another campaign I should launch.

I had read about the bathrooms in Rome, and I followed the suggestion to always carry a small amount of toilet paper in a zip lock back in my purse.  It was only called for once, and wouldn't you know it,  I didn't have my purse on me after having to mandatory check it when going into the museo e Galleria Borghese.  In hindsight, seeing the Bernini sculptures there was well worth that minor inconvenience.

Some bathroom facilities were just a few notches above these first century toilets in Ostia Antica (this is a fabulous tour, and I highly recommend - there is much, much more to see than just toilets).

My take-away:

• All places we found to eat or get a drink had a bathroom and there are more establishments to eat then you would ever imagine.
• Carry that extra toilet paper and take it with you if you have to check your bag at a museum.
• Practice your squatting skills before leaving if your a girl.  If your a man, you've got it made.
• Although I was also warned about needing change for bathrooms that you have to pay for, we never ran into that during our trip though a few bathrooms had attendants that you can tip.