The bidet is the Italian bathroom fixture that produces more tourist confusion, online forum speculation, and carefully worded "how to use" guides than any other aspect of Italian daily life. This is partly because the bidet is absent from most American, British, Canadian, and Australian bathrooms (the anglophone world, with its specific Victorian-era sewage infrastructure decisions, largely never adopted the bidet), and partly because the bidet's function, washing the genital and anal areas with water after using the toilet, is considered so self-evidently sensible in Italy that Italian hotel and bathroom design guides typically don't explain it at all, assuming the knowledge. The Italian visitor in a New York hotel bathroom who finds no bidet experiences the same bewilderment in reverse.
The Italian legal framework: the bidet has been mandatory in all new Italian bathrooms under national building code since 1975 (Ministerial Decree of June 5, 1975, which established minimum bathroom specifications for residential buildings including the "apparecchio igienico-sanitario aggiuntivo", the additional sanitary fixture, meaning the bidet). This means that virtually every Italian bathroom built in the past 50 years has one, and the renovation of older bathrooms frequently adds one retroactively. Italy is the country with the highest per-capita bidet density in the world. To understand Italian hygiene culture is to understand that the bidet isn't a luxury accessory but an infrastructure fundamental, the equivalent of running water.
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How the Italian Bidet Works
The Standard Italian Bidet: Operation
The standard Italian bidet is a ceramic fixture approximately the same size as the toilet, positioned immediately beside it (typically to the left of the toilet when facing it, though right-side placement exists). It has two taps (hot and cold, or a single mixer tap), a central jet or a rim-mounted spray, and a drain. Basic operation: straddle the bidet facing either the wall (preferred for men and for frontal washing) or the taps (preferred for posterior washing, this is the specific choice that puzzles most first-time bidet users, as facing the taps puts you facing the wall with the nozzle behind you). Run the water to temperature before positioning. Use soap if desired (a small soap dish beside the bidet usually contains a bar). Wash. Dry with the small towel hung specifically beside the bidet (this is the bidet towel, not the general bathroom towel, not the face towel). The process takes approximately 30-60 seconds and is, once normalised, considerably more effective at cleaning than toilet paper alone.
The Handheld Spray Bidet (Bidet a Telefono)
Some Italian bathrooms, particularly in more recently renovated spaces and in homes with limited floor space, replace the freestanding bidet with a handheld spray attached to the toilet water supply, the "bidet a telefono" or "bidet doccetta." This is operated by holding the spray head and directing the water jet while seated on the toilet. Same function, smaller footprint, slightly less precise control. Common in modern Italian apartments. Less common in traditional Italian bathrooms where the freestanding bidet is preferred.
Q&A: Italian Bidet
Is using the bidet instead of toilet paper more hygienic?
Yes, by the standard metrics of pathogen removal and skin irritation. The American and British medical establishment has historically been indifferent to the bidet question, but the specific evidence supports water cleaning over paper: water physically removes contaminants from the skin surface. Toilet paper smears them. The dermatological case for bidets is particularly strong for people with hemorrhoids, anal fissures, or sensitive skin. The COVID-19 pandemic-era toilet paper shortage in 2020 produced a significant first wave of bidet adoption in the anglophone world. The next bidet market expansion in North America and the UK is accelerating.
Why does Italy have bidets everywhere but the UK and USA don't?
The historical answer: the bidet originated in France in the 17th century as an aristocratic hygiene accessory, spread through southern Europe with the 18th-century French cultural influence, and became a working-class utility fixture in Italy by the late 19th century as indoor plumbing became standard. The British rejection of the bidet has a specific cultural explanation: it was associated with Catholic continental immorality (the Victorians regarded it as connected to prostitution and sexual hygiene, which in their moral framework wasn't a subject of respectable domestic furniture). The American rejection followed from the British one. The 1975 Italian law codifying the bidet's mandatory status in new construction solidified a cultural norm that the anglophone world's different cultural history had prevented from taking hold.
Curiosità sul Bidet Italiano
Il bidet è talmente radicato nella cultura italiana che la sua assenza crea disagio fisico nei viaggiatori italiani all'estero, un fenomeno documentato dai forum di viaggio italiani dove il bidet viene regolarmente citato come uno degli elementi più "mancanti" durante i soggiorni in paesi anglosassoni. Esistono bidets portatili (piccoli spruzzatori a pressione da valigia) specificamente commercializzati per il turista italiano che viaggia in paesi privi di bidet. La specifica ansia italiana al riguardo è così diffusa che "country senza bidet" è diventata un'espressione informale per indicare qualsiasi situazione di disagio igienico.
