The Famous Outdoor Shower

It isn’t just caldo (hot) today, it’s caldisimo! Perfect for a nice outdoor shower.

Because they just don't understand our need for it, our Italian builders call ours "la famosa doccia esterna" (The famous outdoor shower). In Tuscany, at least, famosa (or famoso) is a word usually said with touch of sarcasm. Famosa or not, I don't know how can anyone live and work and sweat here without one?

Maintenance free and much cheaper than a swimming pool, I installed our famous shower yesterday. Simone, our plumber, wanted over 500 Euro to install one of brass that would last a lifetime. I opted for some galvanized iron pipe and a faucet found at the European equivalent of Home Depot. Total cost: 80 Euro. Well, the shower head cost us $100 dollars in the US back in 1995 when we built our loft, but we didn’t have high enough water pressure to make it work right. Here, however, its gentle rain is much appreciated. Chalk another one up to reuse, the greenest kind of recycling.

Oh! And every drop of water is recycled in our vegetable garden.

Oh Oh! And every drop of hot water is heated by the sun for free!