An analysis based on Wikipedia data draws a map of Europe based on the percentage of citizens who take a shower every day. Italy is in the lead, the only country with over 95%, ahead of Portugal between 85 and 94%. Spain and Greece follow between 75 and 84%. In almost all the others, less than 65% of citizens would have the habit of showering every day. Read from Italy, the map has a simple explanation: where it’s less hot, you sweat less and therefore the need to wash your body is less. Accordingly, just do it after playing sports, not every day. We would read it like this because that’s how we understand the shower: washing the whole body after a lot of sweating. Hands, which get dirty more easily and not through perspiration, are washed several times a day, but a washbasin is enough.
But let’s put ourselves in the shoes of an Englishman, a Frenchman or a German, all inhabitants of harsher climates where less than 65% shower every day. They have always told us that the shower also has another purpose: to replace the bidet. As we know, it is an Italian habit that just can’t take root among the cousins of other nations, even those close to us with whom we have close and long-standing acquaintances. They have been coming to visit us for generations, they are in love with our cuisine and our lifestyle and many wealthy people have chosen to spend the final portion of their lives with us. Yet, that remains an exclusive of the Italians. To the question “why?”, the answer was always “they take a shower”. Therefore, there would even be a surplus of hygiene.
Now we discover that the complete washing would actually be linked to heat and sweating and not to intimate hygiene. Not surprising. Browsing, we learn that a people with a very high frequency of showers are the Brazilians, even two a day. After all, associating the hygiene of a small part of the body, which requires it on a daily basis, with a complete wash seemed a little excessive and uncomfortable, as well as a waste of time.
In conclusion, it seems that all those who refuse to adopt our little habit, which became the country’s hygiene heritage after the Piedmontese found that strange violin-shaped object in the Royal Palace of Caserta, are no less clean than us, but really dirty . Every people has qualities and we learn a lot from everyone. But we are cleaner.