Living in Europe, comes with its obvious cultural differences but there are other differences us expats have learned to live with. Household appliances that Americans are used to are much fewer and far between here. This is true in Italy, as it is true in many other European countries. The appliance I miss the most, is a dryer. I would love to have a clothes dryer again in my life. It is a tedious chore to remove the wet clothes from the washing machine and hang them to dry. Luckily, in Naples, it is customary to hang your laundry on lines from your balcony or even in the city of Naples, lines that extend from window to window across streets.

Clothes here dry fast in the ever present sun, but it comes with the downside of catching the pollution of cars and motorcycles and the burning of whatever in a nearby field that is constantly present. When it rains, we must bring the laundry inside to dry, which can take up two days to dry. Washing bed sheets or towels when it rains is useless, there’s nowhere to hang them and it would take days to dry inside. I miss the efficiency of washing your clothes, throwing them in the dryer (and also getting wrinkles out quicker!), and folding them all in a quick few hours.

Besides dryers, central air conditioning. We have a wall unit, which provides enough cold air to keep our living room very cold and the rest of the house “cool”. Italians often believe that air conditioning causes a whole variety of illnesses and ailments so many are afraid to turn on the air conditioning, if they have it, though I have noticed with temperatures only rising each year, many have seemed to have forgotten the dreaded illnesses that are caused by the air con and have been turning them on. The lack of air conditioning makes it impossible to stay at home during the summer months, you are always searching for a way out of the house and somewhere cool to go. The heat can be unbearable in Naples. The school I work in has a few air conditioned rooms but our classroom is not in the air conditioning, the last few days were miserable without cool air.

If you are interested in the illnesses of the air conditioning you seem to only find in Italy (in English too!), https://www.naturando.it/en/uncategorized/protect-yourself-from-air-conditioning-disorders/.