Every Italian home and hotel room has a bidet. It’s the low basin next to the toilet that looks like a weird sink. It’s not a second toilet. It’s not a foot bath (well, some people use it for that). It’s for washing.
Plan your trip →Post-toilet hygiene. You use toilet paper first, then the bidet for a water wash. Italians consider this essential — not using the bidet is, in Italian culture, like not washing your hands. Also used for: washing feet after the beach, cooling down in summer, bathing babies.
Face the faucet or face away (both camps exist — this is a genuine cultural debate). Straddle the bidet. Adjust water temperature (mix hot and cold). Wash. Dry with the small towel hanging nearby (the bidet towel, NOT the hand towel). If there’s no dedicated towel, use toilet paper to dry. Important: the bidet is required by Italian building law in every residential bathroom. Hotels without bidets receive complaints from Italian guests. This is serious business.