If you ever walk out of an Italian home with wet hair, watch the face of the oldest woman in the room. It is not disapproval, exactly. It is closer to alarm, the look you would give someone about to cross a highway without looking.
She is not worried about how you look. She is worried about something she can't see and you haven't thought about. And once you know its name, you will start noticing it everywhere in Florida.
A blast of air
The name is colpo d'aria, literally a blow or hit of air. In practice it means a draft, and in the Italian imagination it can cause almost anything: a stiff neck, an earache, a headache, sore eyes, an upset stomach. Italians will tell you exactly where it struck. Ho preso un colpo d'aria al collo. I caught a draft in my neck.
Behind it is an old belief that sudden changes in temperature are bad for you. The closest thing in English is the vague chill our own grandmothers warned us about. Whether a breeze can really make you ill is a debate I will happily leave to doctors. What interests me is what the belief did to the way Italians get dressed.
The rules every mother knows
Ask an Italian mother and you will get a list, delivered without hesitation. Never leave the house with wet hair. Never open a window while you are sweating. Never sit under the air conditioning. And cover up the moment the temperature dips below about 25 degrees Celsius, which is 77 in Fahrenheit.
The recommended cures are just as specific: a hot bath, a cup of chamomile, breathing in steam. The prevention is a garment with a wonderful name, la maglia della salute, the health shirt, a light undershirt that keeps the chest covered.
This is why, in October, you will see Italians in scarves and light jackets while visitors from colder places walk past in short sleeves. The part of the body they protect is always the same. The neck, the throat, the chest, the small of the back. The places where, as far as any Italian mother is concerned, the air gets in.
It has also shaped the clothes. Italian knitwear is full of pieces that are almost weightless yet cover exactly those places: a fine knit with a closed neckline, three-quarter sleeves, a length that reaches the hip.
Here is the twist. By the Italian mother's own rules, the most dangerous place in the world is not a windy piazza in Milan. It is a Florida restaurant in October. Ninety degrees in the parking lot, sixty-eight at the table, and a vent directly above your shoulders. We go from one to the other a dozen times a day.
So whatever you believe about drafts, the Italian answer is the comfortable one. Not a sweater, which is too much in the car. Something thin that covers the neck and the arms. The red top above is a fine viscose knit, made in Italy, with a small tie at the throat and sleeves that stop between the elbow and the wrist. It goes into any air-conditioned room and comes out again without a thought. The pale yellow knit maxi dress in the photo at the top does the same for the whole body, long sleeves and all, and it still works with sandals.
There are more ways to wear a knit like that in how to style a lightweight knit top, and more on dressing for Italian weather that won't make up its mind in what every Italian says about October.
Dry your hair before you go out. Keep something light around your neck. Somewhere, an Italian mother will relax. The fine knits are in the knitwear.
She travels to Italy each season to hand-select the boutique's collection.
Keep reading
The Small Gesture That Means Summer Is Over in Italy
The First Cool Evening Catches Everyone Dressed Wrong
