Bathrooms in Italy: What's that string for on the wall?

When you are traveling in Italy you will see strings hanging down the wall over tubs and shower stalls. This is actually an alarm system required by building code, especially for hotels and other places renting out rooms or apartments to travelers. If you've fallen and can't get up, all you need to do is reach way up there to where the end of the string is (I've seen some that are fairly high, or with short strings, if they have strings at all) and give a good pull.

Then wait. And wait. And wait.

You see, no one really ever responds to these, except perhaps police outside of public rest rooms. Hotels have stopped responding because tourists always think "gee, what's this" and pull it to see what will happen. Nothing.

To make matters worse, there is no defined way of hooking the thing up to a bell or buzzer... or where to put it. Some hotels have it ring a little "ding" at the front desk. Many B&Bs and apartments have it ringing someone's office that isn't always occupied. And get this... some have it hooked to the front doorbell.  I suppose that's to notify YOU that you've fallen and can't get up.

Whatever you do, don't get creative and hang wet laundry from the string. You'll definitely get a response--perhaps in the middle of the night--that way!

--Jerry Finzi

If you like this post, don't pull the string, just SHARE and LIKE it! Grazie.