Italian bathrooms generally suck - or at least their toilets do. When you see your first Italian hotel toilet, it looks slightly odd in shape - a very rectangular oval, but no big deal. The water level is low, probably for water conservation, so ok. Flushing is always via a push-button either on the top of the toilet or on the wall - and sometimes it takes a few tries to work. No, all of that is quite acceptable when you realize there is no liftable toilet seat. Yes folks, you have to sit on the bowl!
Now have fun taking a shower. Two hotels have had baths with a very low-placed detachable showerhead to shower, but no curtain to contain the water splashing. One bath had a little half-glass partition, but that didn't help much. Another bath had a shower curtain, as well as a detachable head that was carefully placed so I that could just barely raise it on the wall high enough to stand under it and wash my hair two-handed. Our current hotel has a shower stall, no tub, which is about two feet square. The shower head is tall enough for either of us to stand under (good thing Eric is 5'11" instead of 6'), but the water pressure (or lack thereof) doubles the time it takes to wash my hair.
Then of course there is the ubiquitous bidet. The thought of touching the working parts to operate it leaves me nauseous, so I just leave it alone.
Oh, but you're not planning on staying 24/7 in your hotel, are you? You want to explore Italy? Well, good luck with non-hotel toilets! Good luck finding a stall that locks, a toilet with a toilet seat, a toilet paper dispenser that doesn't rip off one square at a time, and/or an automatic flusher that doesn't keep flushing while you're still sitting on the pot. Every city so far has had public WC stations (Water Closet) where you pay 0.6 to 1.0 Euros for cleanliness and a good stock of TP, but every other annoyance is still a possibility. Restaurant toilets are just as bad, including those at the highway reststop restaurants. Autogrill & My Chef are life savers - but beware their bathrooms!!
Bright spot: two churches have had toilet stalls with spray sanitizer and universal symbols explaining how to rip off some TP, spray it with sanitizer, and wipe the toilet seat (yay toilet seat!) before you sit down. Hooray!!!
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Ah, the perils of toileting in Europe - brings back childhood memories - LOL. Of course you will tell us more when you get home, but it sounds like you have had TP most places (just can't get enough off to use) but I can remember there never being TP and you travelled with your own. Hopefully the beauty of Italy has made up for it's problems in the bathrooms.
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