Something that still does and I hope always will captivate me about Europe is clothes drying on a line. I love that there everyone is open enough to air their laundry in the streets. At least that the feeling I get from it but when I think about it, it probably has nothing to do with a communal mindset and probably more of a conservative one. I don't know about the rest of Europe but in Italy the main reason for everyone, and I mean everyone line drying their clothes, is the the mysterious absence of dryers. Something that we in America think of as a necessity just doesn't exist over there. I've seen dryers in laundromats but never in people's homes. Even when I gave in-home English lessons in the wealthiest neighborhoods of Rome the nannies or maids would still line dry all the clothes. I've asked Italians about it and from what I understand the dryer is simply an unnecessary machine to them (like the microwave.) Even if I sometimes missed clothes fresh from a dryer, I love the visual aesthetic of walking in streets full of colorful laundry hung out everywhere, so I hope Italy never actually switches over.
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