9/01/11 Le Lucciole

Not what you think

What would you say to me if I showed you a picture of a plastic patio chair beside a highway?  What would be the first thing that came to your mind?  Garbage, or perhaps something that fell off the back of a pickup truck perhaps.  Fruits or vegetables for sale?  Maybe on a rural road, but not on a busy two-lane highway with a limit of 100 km/h.

Let’s go in a different direction… how about “prostitute”?  That’s right, prostitute.  Say it slowly with me and give it some romance because tucked away in the tall swaying cornfields of Northern Italy a chair on the side of the road is the calling card of prostitutes practicing their profession, or “mestiere” as my zia says.  Sometimes the chair is occupied to show off what’s on offer, sometimes its empty; the rules aren’t clear.

In recent years there’s been fewer and fewer prostitutes on the sides of the highways; misdirected moral outrage it seems is not exclusive to puritanical North America.  Sometimes the women have a van, sometimes it’s a camper; the price fluctuates based on the accommodations as well as the services (“servizi”) requested.  Regardless, the truckers in Italy seem like a happy bunch.