 Photo by Rick Gush |
When I lived in the States, I was a garage sale freak, and almost every weekend I’d be prowling around in other people’s old junk. Here in Italy I’ve not even seen a single garage sale, but people do leave some pretty interesting stuff in the garbage.
I find a lot of bicycles abandoned next to the garbage bins. I’ve got a bunch of free used parts on my own mountain bike, like the fancy seat and the baskets, but I imagine some of the nicer bikes to be perhaps stolen, so I usually take them to the police station. After a year or so, if nobody claims the bicycles, then the city sends me a letter telling me the bicycle is now legally mine if I want it. So far I haven’t re-claimed any, but I don’t really need another bicycle.
It surprises me how many chairs people leave in the garbage zones. Lots of perfectly good chairs and a whole bunch of chairs that need just minor repairs. Many of the chairs are interesting styles, and some of them are reasonably spectacular.
Photo by Rick Gush |
I’m sitting on an office chair as I write this that was left in the garbage. One of the wheels had come out of the socket, but I just pushed it back into the leg and I’ve been using the chair for probably four years now. One of the pieces of art I have on exhibit around town uses an old chair I found in the garbage, and I have two other recycled chairs in my office. I’ve often thought of collecting all the good chairs and sending a shipping container filled with old chairs over to the U.S.
Italians aren’t in general interested in recently used stuff. Bella Figura, or making a good impression, is awfully important here, even for the lower strata. Having your own new stuff is much preferred. There are some rare thrift-stores in Italy, but I’ll bet there aren’t more than ten in all of northern Italy.
My wife would seem like a perfect used-clothes wearer, but no, she’s not interested in having anything used except antique furniture and old family jewellery. The “we could re-upholster that and use it in our own home” argument has never cut any ice with her.
My favorite things to find in the trash are the fiasci, or raffia-wrapped bottles. I have a fair collection, with everything from the big 15-gallon jugs to funky straw-wrapped bottles obviously home-made by some poor farmer.
I also collect odd bottles, like the Corsica-shaped bottle in the photograph. I’ve got a whole lot of this charming dust-covered stuff stashed around in the nooks of my office and I think that it would be perfect for decorating an Italian restaurant in the states.
If you ever see a shipping container of old Italian bottles being sold on eBay, it’ll probably be me.
