In Italy, it’s not uncommon to find an extra toilet in homes and businesses alongside the standard bathroom toilet. This additional toilet, known in Italian as “la tazza,” serves a specific hygienic purpose.
What is the tazza?
The tazza is a small, secondary toilet typically found in a separate, smaller water closet alongside the main bathroom. It contains just a toilet and often a bidet, without other fixtures like a sink or shower.
The purpose of the tazza is to provide a dedicated place to urinate and defecate, separate from the larger bathroom which is used for complete personal hygiene like bathing, brushing teeth, etc. This separation helps maintain better sanitary conditions.
Why do Italians have a tazza?
Italians place a strong cultural emphasis on hygiene, orderliness, and separating certain functions into different spheres of home or public life. The practice of having a tazza in addition to a main bathroom toilet reflects several Italian sensibilities:
- Keeping toilet activities strictly isolated from other cleanliness routines like bathing and face washing
- Avoiding generating odors, germs, or other contaminants in the main bathroom area
- Having a dedicated place for quick toilet use that doesn’t require entering the full bathroom
- Separating spaces by function – toilet, personal hygiene, cooking, sleeping, etc.
Additionally, some Italians believe that the tazza helps regulate bathroom activities efficiently for family members or guests sharing a single main bathroom. It reduces waiting time and foot traffic.
When did the tazza tradition start?
Italians have historically placed a strong emphasis on hygiene, likely stemming from ancient Roman bathhouse culture as well as the Roman sewer systems. However, the specific tradition of having a separate tazza toilet room alongside a main bathroom emerged more recently.
The tazza became popular in the 1950s-70s when post-war economic growth allowed more working-class Italians to afford upgrading from shared housing to single-family homes. With their own private bathrooms, the Italian cultural norms of orderliness and separation of function led many families to add a dedicated tazza toilet room.
By the 1980s, having both a main bathroom and tazza toilet room was an established cultural norm and expectation in Italian home design. Builders now routinely incorporate tazza spaces into new constructions and renovations.
Where are tazze typically located?
In homes, the tazza is typically located near or next to the main bathroom. It may be an entirely separate small room, or integrated into a hallway area leading to the bathroom.
In larger homes, the tazza may be positioned close to common areas like kitchens or lounges for quick access. In public buildings like offices, restaurants, or commercial spaces, tazze are usually positioned near restrooms.
The tazza room is designed to have easy access but remains visually separated from other living areas. Doors, small hallways, or glass partitions often separate it from the main bathroom.
What are the common fixtures in a tazza?
The most basic Italian tazza will contain:
- A toilet
- Small sink or bidet
- Toilet paper holder
- Small window or exhaust fan
- Wall-mounted toilet brush/plunger set
More elaborate tazze may also contain:
- A mirror
- Shelf for toiletries
- Decorations like wall tiles or artwork
- Additional storage like a medicine cabinet
- More powerful exhaust fan
However, the tazza always contains the bare necessities for quick toilet use in an efficient, focused space separate from the main bathroom.
How is a tazza different than the main bathroom?
Italian main bathrooms contain all the expected modern plumbing fixtures for complete personal hygiene routines:
- Toilet
- Sink
- Bidet
- Shower and/or bathtub
- Bathroom vanity, mirror, and storage
- Adequate ventilation
They may also have luxury features like heated floors, spa tubs, towel warmers, and designer decor. The main bathroom is a room for leisurely bathing, grooming, and relaxation.
In contrast, the tazza is a purely utilitarian space for efficient toileting only. It’s much smaller and lacks creature comforts. But its pared-down fixtures and quick access layout suits the specific bodily function it is designed for.
What are some tazza variations?
While most Italian tazze follow the standard toilet/bidet layout, some variations exist:
- Water closet style: The tazza may be an extremely small water closet with just a toilet and tiny sink squeezed in.
- Shared tazza: Two separate tazze rooms may flank a central larger bathroom shared by family or roommates.
- Urinal included: In office or commercial tazze, a urinal may be installed in addition to a toilet.
- No bidet: Some basic tazze contain just a toilet without a bidet.
- Shower tazza: In limited spaces like apartments, the tazza may contain a small shower in addition to the toilet.
But the basic tazza remains simply a toilet with bidet in a dedicated separate space from the main bathroom.
Is the tazza used elsewhere besides Italy?
The tazza seems to be a uniquely Italian phenomenon ingrained in the culture, and is generally not found elsewhere.
Some other European countries may occasionally have an additional separate toilet room, but only Italy has refined this into a proper cultural tradition with specific customs and design norms around the tazza.
However, Italian-Americans sometimes incorporate a tazza into home renovations as a nod to their heritage. The tazza may also be found in Italian restaurants abroad seeking to evoke an authentically Italian setting.
What are the positives of having a tazza?
Italians highlight several benefits of their tazza toilet tradition:
- Improved hygiene by separating toilet functions from other bathroom activities
- Avoiding odors, noises, or microbes from the toilet area entering the rest of the home
- Added privacy for shared bathrooms when family or guests need to use the toilet
- Quick access for urgent toilet needs without disturbing others in main bathroom
- Efficient division of specific hygiene functions like toileting, bathing, grooming
- Chaos reduction from segmented bathroom usage among many people
The tazza provides a dedicated toilet space reflecting the cultural Italian values of order, cleanliness, and separation of function in the home.
What are the negatives of the tazza?
Potential downsides of having a tazza include:
- Higher construction costs and space requirements for an additional room and redundant toilet
- Higher water usage from flushing two toilets
- Inconvenience if the main bathroom is occupied and tazza lacks certain facilities
- No hygienic benefit if cleaning is neglected and odors still migrate
- Confusion for foreign guests unfamiliar with its purpose
- Lack of total privacy if it is located too close to living areas
However, most Italians feel the cultural tradition and hygiene benefits make the tazza a valued fixture in Italian homes.
Conclusion
The Italian tazza is a cultural tradition dating back several decades with specific norms around placement, design, and function. This secondary toilet room allows for separation of toileting from other personal hygiene activities in Italian bathrooms.
Italians believe the tazza improves sanitary conditions and order in the home by having a dedicated utilitarian space just for toilet usage located adjacent to, but separate from, the main bathroom. It reflects the cultural values of cleanliness, organization, and segmentation of domestic activities.
While not found elsewhere in the world, the tazza is likely to remain a quintessential part of the Italian home. It provides quick access and improved hygiene for this necessary bodily function.