Italians and the Dreaded Colpo D'Aria
How working out got ugly for a Rome expat at her local Italian health club
Living in Italy for the last 10 years or so, I have had the chance to observe and ponder on many of the cultural curiosities that set it apart from much of the rest of the world. Having grown up in an Italian family, I was often warned of the perhaps fatal consequences of certain practices such as drinking anything with ice, going out with wet hair, or being given the “malocchio” (evil eye) to name a few. All these superstitions I would take with a grain of salt, as I found them harmless and would for the most part simply ignore them.
The dreaded “colpo d’aria”(gust of air) on the other hand, which once gave me a chuckle has now become a bit of a bone of contention. It all started at my neighborhood gym a few days ago. Summer had just descended upon Rome without warning, and hardly any of the shops and places of business were ready to turn on the air conditioning (I know, the fact there even IS air conditioning now in Italy is a miracle). Now I have been living here since the good old days when the currency was the Lire and air conditioning was some silly invention adopted by the rich Americani, and therefore I can and have lived without it. What I can’t live without, especially while working out in a hot gym, is a fan. Intending to endanger only my own life by turning on the ceiling fan, I made my way over to an abandoned corner of the gym where no one else was exercising and went ahead and flicked the switch. Moments later as I was happily sweatin’ to the oldies, a woman I recognized from a step class began to make her way towards me. Before getting onto a machine near me, and without any hesitation, she switched off my fan. Thinking that was incredibly rude but not sure I was ready for an all out altercation, I got down off my machine, marched over and turned it on again. This is when it got ugly.
Paranoid schizophrenic but otherwise lovely aerobics queen: (from here on out we will refer to her as PSBOLAQ): Excuse me, you can’t do that!
Me: Oh no? Funny, I don’t remember you asking before you shut it off, and seeing how I was here first, maybe you could come back in ten minutes when I’m done if you’re so worried about it.
PSBOLAQ: Everybody knows that it’s dangerous! All I need is to get on that machine when a blast of air hits my neck and I’ll be laid up for 15 days with bronchitis!
ME: (trying to be nice) No, of course you don’t need that, but I came over to this abandoned corner just so that you and the rest of the folks here would not have to take that fatal risk
PSBOLAQ: Yes, well naturally I cannot stay on the same machine all morning long, I need to diversify!
ME: Good for you, then you’ll have to put up with the fan. I have exercised with a fan on for about 15 years now, and low and behold I am still alive to tell the story!
PSBOLAQ had had enough. Without further ado she marched over to the gym manager and reported my reckless attempt to murder everyone in the gym by exposing them to a little fresh air (by the way, what are the fans even THERE FOR if we can’t turn them on). The manager tried to keep the situation under control, and in the end he decided to turn the fan down to low instead of off. PSBOLAQ proceeded to begin stepping, and the moment I finished my workout she shut that fan off with the speed of lightning.
While this scene was unfolding in the gym, I tried to scan the room to see how the other Italians reacted to it (Italians seem to enjoy getting involved whenever there is a “situation”). What I saw was a mixed bag…a few sympathetic smiles, a few pretending not to listen, and a few looking at me as if I were the mad hatter.
My question is this. If modern science has taught us anything, we know that colds and flus are transmitted by the spread of a virus or bacteria. Why then, do people still insist that they ride on the magic carpet of a gust of air? It’s going to be a long summer at that gym unless I somehow transform into a proper Italian and start having paranoid fears of the harmless.
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Laugh-out-loud funny (although I am sure you weren't laughing at the time!). So happy to have discovered your blog via Blogging from the Boot. Will bookmark your site for future reading and for guide service on our next trip to Rome.
Try sitting in an un-airconditioned train for a few hours and opening a window and see what happens...
http://burntbythetuscansun.blogspot.com/2007/08/wet-head-is-dead.html
i totally hear ya!!! ive been here for a while myself and ur fighting a lost cause. its cultural and whatevers cultural is pointless fighting. i was always swimming against the current, finally got tired and just adapted in the end. white socks became black, no flip flops in the summer (unless on the way to the beach), started dressing a little better, eating a little better, knowing what im eating and dinking too has been important, when why who what and where it came from was essential for daily conversation. in the end i think this place has given me more than i have given it to be honest....kinda refined me in a way. with all its flaws bureaucracy and shady characters u gotta be honest it could be worse...u could be in china, saudi arabia. russia etc....but then again i can easily be a lot better with minimal organisation. as for the myths, what can i say but leave it alone and change the subject you\'ll just end up overheating even more. i drank a freezing bottle of water just after a run a few years back and you should have seen the looks on the italaians faces around me!!! it was hysterical....they thought i was going to die.....hahahahaha good luck.
cracking up........now if we can introduce cool air to the yoga studios of Rome/Italy?! I would settle for a fan!!
I completely sympathise and share your frustration with you on this! This one is up there with the "cambio di stagione"! There are certain times of the year where if I have any kind of symptom: a sore throat, I'm a little tired, a little more hungrier than usual, whatever - "oh, it must be the cambio di stagione!" For goodness' sake... Fortunately I can laugh about the silliness of it, but working out in a steamy gym without any fresh air is certainly no laughing matter...
Which gym is this? I've been thinking of joining a gym and I want to make sure to avoid this one.
good one! Having italian beaus who refuse to sleep with the fan (to say nothing of a/c), i feel your pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yes.. the famous Colpo d'aria !!!!!!!!!!! the fear of every decent Italian that respects himself and his ancestors....
As with all urban myths, this colpo d'aria has found its fertile roots among the Romans that prefer the Turkish Bath approach to life... It can be a subject of hot conversation on a wonderful hot (frying) August night and you can hear the pasta-mangia crowds defend the idea with fever in their eyes, submitting to their nonna's fables....
The colpo d'aria along with the colpo della strega and all other assorted colpi is a good way to start a heated argument with the hot-headed Roman honchos...
If you point out to them that if the colpo d'aria is an innocuous bdily pleasure and the A/C beneficial, they will shower you with anecdotal stories of near death experiences of relatives struck by various colpi at various parts of their bodies
No wonder there are so many saints in the area..... god's grace to the colpiti :)))
Stay cool and let the air breath and circulate
gives you stomachaches, neck pain, back pain, and a whole host of other ailments too dont you know?
Every morning, I shower, slick my dripping wet hair into a ponytail and ride my bike to wherever I need to be. You should see the shocked looks I get when people realize I'm walking around with wet hair.
What do they do when they go to the beach? Do Italians immediately blowdry their hair after a swim or is the colpo d'aria null and void on the seaside?
As an American, I also find it sacriledge to be served a Coke without ice. I've even walked into a Mc Donald's and a Burger King in search of a large cup of Coke with perfectly slivered ice and was shocked to be told that they didn't have any ice whatsoever. What has the world come to when you can't even get ice in an American fast food restaurant during a heatwave? Well, when in Rome...you know the rest.
On the wet hair and colpo d'aria--this is a source of a running joke between my Italian friends and me. I have had perfect strangers tell me, "ma non e' il caso!" when I've gone out with wet hair in Spring or Autumn (with never a cervicale as a result). My friends and I laugh at each other over these idiosyncrasies...they call me "pazza" because I sleep with a fan blowing directly on my body and I call them super-"delicati" because they say they get a cervicale if the wind blows on their tender necks.
I can imagine that it would be annoying in a gym if you are working up a sweat, but in general, I find the differences endearing. And when I go to Texas, I have to admit to feeling a little twinge when I go from the 45 degree heat into a 0 degrees air-conditioned supermarket. While I was coming back on the plane a year ago, I heard someone arguing with the flight attendant about whether or not cold air was blasting from the ceiling. I smiled and thought, "I'm back home in Italy."
Hi to all,
I wouldn't want to disturb your polemic appetites and also I am quite
new here to know enough about Italian habits, but just let me add some
food for thought: Did you know that in several other countries not so far from yours, I guess (e.g.
France, Germany, Greece) , there are people sharing the same or very
similar beliefs with regard to catching a cold, or being afraid of the
"evil eye" ???
actually i was wondering about that, also b/c stavros (one of the first
respondents) is greek...i have never lived in another country before italy so
- in trying to assess over these past few years the root of the difference
- i knew the colpa d'aria "superstition" was here, but thought also maybe
other countries and cultures who did not grow up with air/con like those of us
from the US etc have.
curious if anyone can enlighten - this "fear" of the wind, wet hair, fans,
a/c (can we throw bare feet in too?) etc - is it truly more italy centric or
wider-spread?
my theory of the moment, having a southern italian beau with whom i
constantly have these arguments, oops, i mean "discussions" :-) (sleeping
together in the spring and summer? forget about it!) - is that perhaps they *do*
get sick, and we don't b/c we are accustomed to wind, fans, a/c since we were
small. but they simply don't have the tolerance to it (yet?).
also, in my limited experience it seems worse in southern Italians, which
would seem to support the theory - they are accustomed to much hotter temps,
and their bodies, out of necessity and survival, have adjusted. our base
line internal temp is much higher (for to survive the harsh winters), so we
have more "need" - psychologically and/or physically - to cool off.
this would also could partly explain why the tourists are already in shorts
in march, and the romans are wearing down-coats, neck-scarves and wool
tweed til...just about now. ;-)
thoughts?
actually did a very lengthy Masters degree course on the subject and wrote a paper on it, but I'm not going to give you all the little details here. It basically has to do with the way people years ago, particularly the more ignorant folk (not in the offensive sense but as in lack of knowledge) would often justify occurrences they didn't know how to explain. They create explanations for them as a means of comforting themselves in the face of a world they couldn't control - this is how rites and magic and all kinds of odd beliefs came about. Once the enlightenment came along, many of these washed away, but in areas where it wasn't, it evolved into superstition.
If you're really fascinated by this particular topic of anthropology, I'd highly recommend Ernesto de Martino's "Sud e Magia" for more detail and a more eloquent explanation than I can give here. If you enjoy this sort of thing it really is a great read, I must say...
Hi, i think your theory is totally correct!
there are actually some things that left me with a question mark for a
while about wind/air etc when living abroad... besides the ones in Italy
of course...
here they are:
Japan, Tokyo. A/c so strong one needs to wear a cot everywhere but in
subways and offices. I was told this was to allow employees to wear
jackets and "office ladies" to wear stockings. I still wonder if this is
true!
USA, Orlando. I came back to Rome with a bronchities due to the
temperature change between conference rooms and hotel corridors, and
outside venues and restaurants... i was not sure if i had to wear autumn
cloths or summer cloths as we were changing meeting and conference
location at least 4 times a day!
USA, NYC, Snow everywhere... bermudas and short sleeves and windows
open to cool air a bit at home...
These things make no sense to me ... but definitely do to Kyoto Protocol!
India, New Delhi, October. Definitely very hot... above 30 C... a/c on
at home. Our helper at home used to put a scarf around his neck when
going out...Thought it was weird when i first saw it, but soon realized
this was what every indian was doing. I felt like "those weird
Scandinavians in short sleeves in March in Rome!"
Iran, somewhere in a desert, incredibly hot, understandibly everybody
completely covered becasue of the sand and to cover themselves from the
sun. We had lunch at some locals round shaped home in the middle of
nowhere with no trees or water around. The little holes on the round
walls made air circualte so well it was incredible it could be finally
cool ... or maybe this was an hallucination!
Curious about the colpa d'aria debate, I did an internet search and found
that not everything is necessarily a myth or a superstition! Read the
article below about a British medical study.
Still, I enjoy a nice pleasant breeze, but not freezing cold air
conditioning. I guess its a matter of what one is used to.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- British researchers into the common cold say
"catching a chill" really does help colds develop -- and are advising to
"wrap up warm" to keep viruses at bay.
Mothers and grandmothers have long warned that chilling the surface of the
body, through wet clothes, feet and hair, causes common cold symptoms to
develop.
But much previous research has dismissed any link between chilling and
viral infection as having no scientific basis.
Now researchers in Cardiff, Wales, say they can prove drops in temperature
to the body really can cause a cold to develop. (Watch what they did to
'chill' people in the study -- 3:24)
Claire Johnson and Professor Ron Eccles, from Cardiff University's Common
Cold Center, recruited 180 volunteers, half of whom they got to immerse
their feet in ice and cold water for 20 minutes.
The other 90 in tests during the common cold "season" sat with their feet
in an empty bowl.
During the next four or five days, almost a third (29 percent) of the
chilled volunteers developed cold symptoms -- compared to just 9 percent
in the control group, the scientists said.
Professor Eccles said there was a simple explanation as to why chilly feet
could lead to the development of cold virus symptoms.
"When colds are circulating in the community many people are mildly
infected but show no symptoms," he said, according to the UK's Press
Association.
"If they become chilled this causes a pronounced constriction of the blood
vessels in the nose and shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white
cells that fight infection.
"The reduced defences in the nose allow the virus to get stronger and
common cold symptoms develop.
"Although the chilled subject believes they have `caught a cold' what has
in fact happened is that the dormant infection has taken hold."
The researchers, writing in the UK medical journal Family Practice, said
that common colds were more prevalent in the winter than the summer, and
this could be related to an increased incidence of chilling causing more
clinical colds.
But they also suggested that another explanation could be that our noses
are colder in the winter.
Professor Eccles added: "A cold nose may be one of the major factors that
causes common colds to be seasonal.
"When the cold weather comes we wrap ourselves up in winter coats to keep
warm but our nose is directly exposed to the cold air.
"Cooling of the nose slows down clearance of viruses from the nose and
slows down the white cells that fight infection.
"Mothers can now be confident in their advice to children to wrap up well
in winter."
Cardiff's Common Cold Center says it is the world's only center dedicated
to researching and testing new medicines for the treatment of flu and the
common cold.
