When I live on in the States , I was a service department cut-rate sale freak , and almost every weekend I ’d be prowling around in other people ’s sure-enough junk . Here in Italy I ’ve not even seen a individual garage sale , but the great unwashed do leave some pretty interesting stuff in the refuse .
I witness a lot of bicycles vacate 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 overnice 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 lawfully mine if I need it . So far I have n’t re - take any , but I do n’t really postulate another bicycle .
It surprises me how many lead people bequeath in the refuse zones . lot of perfectly effective chairs and a whole bunch of chairs that need just minor fixing . Many of the chairs are interesting style , and some of them are reasonably spectacular .
I ’m sitting on an office chairperson as I write this that was impart 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 in all probability four days now . One of the pieces of art I have on exhibit around townspeople use an previous chairman I witness in the drivel , and I have two other recycle chairs in my spot . I ’ve often conceive of collecting all the good chairs and sending a shipping container fill with one-time president over to the U.S.
Italians are n’t in world-wide interested in lately used material . Bella Figura , or making a good impression , is awfully important here , even for the lower strata . have your own fresh stuff is much preferred . There are some rare thrift - stores in Italy , but I ’ll bet there are n’t more than ten in all of northerly Italy .
My wife would seem like a thoroughgoing used - wearing apparel wearer , but no , she ’s not interested in get anything used except antique furniture and old family jewelry . The “ we could re - upholster that and use it in our own plate ” argument has never cut any ice with her .
My favourite things to ascertain in the trash are the fiasci , or raffia - wrapped bottleful . I have a fair appeal , with everything from the big 15 - gallon jug to fetid straw - wrapped bottles patently home - made by some poor James Leonard Farmer .
I also garner odd bottles , like the Corsica - influence bottle in the photograph . I ’ve got a whole lot of this charming dust - cover stuff stashed around in the nooks of my office and I mean that it would be perfect for decorating an Italian restaurant in the states .
If you ever see a shipping container of old Italian feeding bottle being sold on eBay , it ’ll probably be me .
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