George....
Most who own a steam generator iron in Italy just go with regular ironing boards in household use even though steam generator always been about the 20% of household irons used here, I do use regular board also and no any dripping underside so far......it's a plus but not needed in most cases, most of the times it is not necessary if your boards have a very large" net" like mine........not with the ones with little transpirating holes....
The fact of most ironing stuff being made over here is simple, the history and "art" of ironing in Italy always been very strong because of dryers being not usual here in Italy...
As you know most of the stuff you hang outside then requires ironing unlike it happends with dryers when most stuff is wrinkle free and fluffy that you just have to fold and store in closets.....
Well dryers over here have never been used by most of italian since here the electricity historically always had crazy costs....
Unlike happends in the rest of Europe and USA.....in Italy electricity got really CRAZY costs....so running a dryer for most was not feasible as it would have costed a fortune so they only went with clotheslines and clothespins till today when for many hanging os still is daily routine.
It is not a case that when you walk in most italian streets (localities where in condos it is not usesd to have an internal yards with balconies where to hang, such Liguria or Naples etc) you use to see clotheslines and pulleys everywhere from the windows.
Gas dryers and american machines never been known here till now for some reasons....
This till the later years when finally gas dryers from USA and like TL washers (that BTW loading water already hot from gas heaters allows a HUGE saving on electric bill) have been known from Italian people that love them, before of 2000ish italian did not even know gas dryers existed!
Dryers now are becoming very famous here thanks to gas one which running cost is accessible for everyone.
Infact dealers for american machines are raising like mushrooms over here and making alot of money and deals, italians are <span id="result_box" class="short_text" lang="en"><span class="hps">enthusiastic</span></span> for these machines! Only fact the cost for a new BOL speed queen or Whirlpool american machine is about 1500euros!!!! So almost 1900$ USD! So still not accessible for everyone..... There're now also some british new gas dryers from white knight (a little cheaper) but having way small drums(compared to american ones) clothes comes out more wrinkled so they just prefer american machines being better on many aspects, faster and more well-built and durable.....
But as I said:
Italy being almost the only, "non-poor" country where hanging clothes only was usual for the 90+% of people till the recent years here is why ironing is an important MUST, a custom for italians, a thing you just could not live without and here is why here ironing industry got such wide and grew allowing a very rich and wide market and much competition with manufactures that are into ironing stuff only....
Here is a pic of the underneath of my Ironing board......you can understand it can be very transpirating:
[this post was last edited: 9/15/2012-07:45]
