One thing I look for as I travel around are Laundry Lines. I find them fascinating from so many points of view. From their location to what and how things are hung on them.
This laundry line was seen from the balcony, of my Son's in-law's vacation home in Pigna, Italy.
As I turned around I saw this line in a window right next to the balcony.
These are the first photos I took on this trip to Italy. Italy is a paradise of clotheslines.
I was looking at my favorite TV show, "Sunday Morning" on CBS. They had a segment on laundry lines and the fact that they are banned in many Sub-divisions in this country. This was an eye opening segment and well worth watching.
Vermont Country Store is part of The "Right to Dry" Campaign.
What does it say about us as a country, that there has to be an effort to make legislation to give us a right to hang out our laundry? Sadly it seems that the ban on hanging out your laundry, has been spreading to other countries.
So far it has not spread to Northern Italy...or has it...perhaps the laundry lines I am showing you here are illegal ;)
I am on my way out to see if any of my Neighbors are breaking the law...if they are I will post photos here.
For more Laundry Line passion, click on my link to my post on Laundry in Amish Country.
This is funny, Mo'a--I have photographed laundry lines for years & am thinking of making a book for my grandchildren & the other in our circle of friends, in probably English, Sapnish, & Chinese, called Everybody Washes Clothes/Todo El Mundo Llavar Las Ropas (and I can;'t write it in Chinese) with photos from China, Mexico, Guatemals, the US & maybe Europe, though I think the only laundry I photographed there was in Belgium. Leslie
Posted by: Leslie Sirag | July 28, 2009 at 07:23 AM
Lovely photos and truly enjoyed your text!
It brings back so many memories...
of when I was a kid:
http://a-room-of-one-s-own.blogspot.com/2008/02/small-victories.html
and of my grandmother:
http://a-room-of-one-s-own.blogspot.com/2007/10/washing-day.html
Thank you!
Posted by: Isabel | July 22, 2009 at 06:22 PM
I'm back.. I just watched that video and sure enough they mentioned the "problem" here. It's silliness like that here in this town that makes me want to move back to the Bay Area. Actually I'd probably find that attitude anywhere. Why do people insist that others believe what they do, vote how they vote,wear what they wear,etc.Thanks for a interesting post Moa
Posted by: Christine | July 20, 2009 at 04:05 AM
Ok, I've been a slacker blogger (just busy) and didn't see if you were in Italy now or just went recently..anyhow what beautiful images! I remember having to hang clothes when I was very young and even though technology has caught up with us, we secretly still hang some of our linens outside on a line. I say "secretly" because there was a huge fiasco right here in Bend last year regarding this matter that made national news.
I see a laundry line now and it no longer represents something from the past but the idea of non conformity to me :)
Posted by: Christine | July 20, 2009 at 03:53 AM
I have also lived in communities where a clothes line is forbidden. But now isn't it the "green" thing to do? It's crazy. My favorite clotheslines are that of the Amish. It's like a big paint palette.
Posted by: suze | July 19, 2009 at 02:08 AM
I love hanging clothes on the line...mine is in the backyard so no one sees it. I love the feel of towels and sheets and dresses etc after they've hung on the line. there is just something very Zen like to peg clothes and see them swaying in the breeze is a lovely sight to me. Not sure I'd hang them off a front balcony but then if that's all I had....PLUS it saves energy! I can't imagine having to win the right to dry.
Great post and fabulous photos!
XOXOXO
Posted by: Lisa Oceandreamer S. | July 18, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Italy is a paradise of clotheslines and it's one of most charming things about it.
I saw that segment on Sunday Morning last week (I rarely miss that show). That's just not right!
While I don't have a clothesline, I definitely do defend the right of anyone to hang their laundry on the line!
Posted by: Leslie M. | July 16, 2009 at 09:13 PM
I have blogged my clothes line in honor of its right to dry,and your blogg post!I would love to see other peoples clothelines!
Posted by: Alette Siri Ane | July 16, 2009 at 11:39 AM
I reassure you, Mo'a, laundry lines are not forbidden in Italy,nor in France or any Latine country as far as I know!! What a strange idea of having a law to be allowed to hang your washing outside... perhaps it is not good to do so in very poluted areas where your laundry would be dirtier after??! My mother even used to dry sheets and towels directly on the grass and I still sometimes do so. I have never in my life owned a drier and certainly never will ... the smell of the clothes dried outside in the sun is so... so.. inimitable (is that an english word?). I'll be back soon with longer news.
Posted by: marie-neige | July 16, 2009 at 02:45 AM
Hi Mo'a--thank you for pointing me to your blog! What an interesting life you have, and I'm so thrilled that you'll be joining us in CA for An Artful Journey! Looking forward to meeting you! Until then, I'll be reading along...
Posted by: cindy o'leary | July 15, 2009 at 07:58 PM
Do you say that you are not allowed to hang out your laundry? Why not?
I have never in my 29 years of marriage owned a drier....
Posted by: Britt-Arnhild | July 15, 2009 at 01:34 PM
ohhhh...
i love this posting!
back from venice
i find clearly
1/2 of my building shots
are of clothes hanging!
i love them...
:-)
i love how some laundry hangers
seem to make an effort
in the way that certain colors
are placed next to each other...
or
maybe
they just have a talent & an eye
for color harmony....
"""let us wash
all the sunny yellows
and hang them together!"""
i imagine them thinking.....
Posted by: somepinkflowers | July 15, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Wow Moa, yes , thats really fantastic, looking at laundry drying in Italy, in the very old streets and beautifull houses, you can see all the familyes life hanging there.
Wonderfull pictures.
Hope you are well,
xo Dorthe
Posted by: Dorthe Hansen | July 15, 2009 at 03:00 AM
Nothing so fresh as solar drying!
of course, as a child in Engkand, we did nothing buthang out the wash and then bring it in again and so
on and so forth......!
Quite a dance.
In Morocco things dried in about 15mins.
Yes, I love clothes lines.
Posted by: Elizabeth Wix | July 14, 2009 at 05:37 PM
Dear Mo'a,
NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING compares to the fragrance of the sun~kissed sheets and laundry~
HEAVEN! Towels are better in the dryer, though.
Never heard of the "right to Dry" issue~ WILD!
Wishing you many wonderful photographic opportunities of laundry lines and freshly dried laundry too!!!
xox
Constance
Posted by: rochambeau | July 14, 2009 at 02:43 PM
Wow, Mo'a! Thanks for this interesting post. I don't always watch Sunday Morning although it is, in my opinion, one of the more interesting mainstream channel offerings. I did not know what I had missed! This is a subject dear to my heart. I live in the country and hang out my laundry. So now the "right to dry" is another movement along with having some backyard chickens, which I do! We are such a ridiculously wasteful country but things are a changin'. Thank goodness!
Posted by: Caterina B | July 14, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Mo'a...great post!!! Sunday Morning is my favorite program...AND I believe I am going to name my clothespin series 'the right to dry'.
I must say I don't hang my clothes out..ONLY because of our HUGE bird population I would be re washing laundry as soon as it hung for a while. I have been trying to figure out a way to do this though...
Posted by: Stephanie | July 14, 2009 at 12:39 AM