Old wives’ tales aren’t just for old ladies: the Italian fear of cold drafts
After more than a decade of living in Rome, I have had the opportunity to observe and contemplate many of the peculiar cultures that really make Rome and the Romans very different from the rest of the world. Coming from an Italian family like mine, I am well used to the warnings that accompany some activities that you might consider totally harmless, but for Italians, if not done, could result in death! The following are an idea of some of these “dangerous activities”; drink anything with ice, go out with wet hair or get the “malocchio” (evil eye), to name a few. In general, I’d just ignore these superstitions and chalk them up to the old Roman wives tales, especially the one about not drinking anything with ice… I mean, how are you expected to drink iced coffee without ice?
The dreaded “colpo d’aria” (gust of air) who wrapped Italians in a scarf in the height of summer for fear of cracking their necks, used to find this quite amusing and a quaint feature of Italians. , but now it has become a subject of contention. Thanks to global warming and climate change, Rome has had one of its hottest Mays in years and no one expected the heat to come, so as you can imagine hardly any of the shops or other places of business had started using their air conditioning, like I was also preparing my bikini body for the summer and started going to my local gym to prepare for the summer.
I know you think it might be pretty advanced for Italians to have air conditioning, but it’s pretty widely available now, and not just for wealthy Americans. When I first moved to Rome, although it was a different story back in the day of the Lyre, Acs were few and far between so I have survived without it and I’m sure I will again at some point, but once thing i can’t do without especially in a hot sweaty gym while working out is a FAN! So, with the sole intention of endangering my own life, if you believe the fear of “colpo d’aria”, I go to a secluded corner of the gym to use a machine near the fan, at this time no one else was in the area, so my exercise was done under the nice breeze from the ceiling fan near me. My sweaty workout was soon stopped by a woman I recognized from my step class, she walked over and, without stopping to think, simply turned off the fan. As upset as I was, I wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation so I just got off the machine and turned the fan back on to enjoy the rest of my workout, that’s when things started to heat up and I don’t want to say the least. work out!
Aerobics queen, paranoid schizophrenic but otherwise lovely: (hereafter referred to as PSBOLAQ): Excuse me, you can’t do that!
Me: oh no? It’s funny, I don’t remember you asking if it would be okay to turn off the fan before you did, and seeing as I was here first, maybe you could come back in ten minutes when I finish my exercise if you’re so worried about it.
PSBOLAQ: Everyone knows that it is harmful! All I need is to hop on that machine when a gust of air hits my neck and I’ll be in bed for a fortnight with bronchitis!
ME: (trying to be nice) No, of course you don’t need that, but I came to this abandoned corner just so you and the rest of the people here wouldn’t have to take that fatal risk.
PSBOLAQ: Yeah, well naturally I can’t be on the same machine all morning, it’s not part of my gym routine, I need to use all the different types of machines!
ME: Yeah, I understand your need for a perfect gym body, you’ll just have to put up with the fan if you want to use the machine near it. I’ve been exercising with a fan on for about 15 years, and lo and behold, I’m still alive to tell the tale.
PSBOLAQ had had enough…before I knew it, he was off to find the gym manager to report my attempted mass murder by exposing the gym to the small amount of fresh air a ceiling fan can generate. To think that 2 grown women couldn’t solve the fan problem still bothers me, anyway, back to the story, the manager obviously trying to avoid a cat fight in his gym tried to appease us both and opted to switch. the fan to its lowest position, thus finding a happy compromise. So back to our workouts we left and as promised 10 minutes later she had left the area, on my way I was able to see PSBOLAQ run off her climber to turn off the fan before another ‘crazy lunatic’ tried to kill her with some fresh air! I still don’t understand why they have fans in there if we can’t use them without having all that hassle!
While this scene in the gym was taking place, I tried to scan the room to see how the other Italians were reacting (Italians seem to enjoy getting involved whenever there’s a “situation”). What I saw was a variety of reactions… some understanding smiles, some pretending not to listen, and some looking at me like I was the Mad Hatter.
My question is this: if modern science has taught us anything, we know that colds and flus are spread by the spread of a virus or bacteria. Why, then, do people still insist on riding the magic carpet on a breath of air? It’s going to be a long and very hot summer in that gym…