Saga of the Mattress

Most people blog about all the beautiful and extraordinary sights they see when in a foreign country. I enjoy those blogs and dream of when I can go visit those places also. We have some of those experiences, and I hope to have many more before we move back to the US. In the meantime, the things that strike me to blog about are the more mundane, daily living sorts of things.

Mattresses in Italy
Johnnie and I have literally "slept around" all over Southern Italy at this point. We can say with certainly that Italian beds are very hard. Typically there is no box spring, merely a frame with slats and a mattress on top. The mattresses are very hard because Italians believe that is good for your back. They think soft mattresses are bad for you and lead to any number of physical and mental problems.

These are very typical mattresses in Italy  -- the top of the line at Ikea.

Bed frame

Mattress 650 Euro (about $850)

The sizes are Singolo - similar to a twin bed, Matrimonial - similar to a double bed, and then you can find Queen, called various things but you go by the dimensions when shopping for mattresses and bedding rather than the standard nomenclature. You will not see King size or California King.

Also a comment on Italian bedding. They use mostly 100% cotton sheets but not a very high thread count (maybe 200?) so they are a bit rough. Also, you have to iron them; if you don't the wrinkles feel bumpy. Standard pillows are a little longer than US ones.

We have stayed in a few 5 star hotels that actually had king size mattresses and high thread count sheets, and there maybe places to buy, or order those things in Italy. I have not seen them but the hotels must buy them somewhere as I am sure they don't import from the US!

The Joy of our Own Mattress
 After sleeping on the mattress at the hotel, the mattress at the temporary apartment ( a queen), getting our own mattress from the US was a great relief. We both slept fitfully and suffered various aches and pains during the 7 months of temp living. Our mattress set was purchased right before we left for Italy and is a wonderful, king size, pillow top.

So comfy and big!

Unfortunately, when the movers delivered our furniture our beloved almost-new mattress was torn in a couple places and the stuffing was coming out of the pillow top. Not to be dissuaded from a good night's sleep, we put a piece of tape over the two dollar sized holes and had the best sleep since we left Everett!

Mattress punctures

Along with several other items that were broken or damaged by the movers, we filed an insurance claim for the mattress holes. I figured the insurance company would hire someone to sew a patch. When the repair people came, they took the entire top mattress with them and promised to return it in a week.

The repairman always had his niece with him when coming to the house as she speaks fluent English. She contacted us to say the upholsterer thinks our mattress is completely worn out and he will rebuild it for us for an extra 300 euro if we want to pay them directly. We declined, telling her the mattress is practically brand new and we don't want it rebuilt. She said ok, that he probably thinks it is worn out because it is so soft,  and that the upholsterer is going to put a new cover on it for us.

When we got the mattress back, we no longer have a pillow top mattress; we now have a mound-top mattress that is hard! Mama mia! It looks nice but is not our same plush mattress.  I am sure he thought he was doing us a favor, saving our backs and all that, so he made a new top for it as hard as he could make it.

New and "Improved" Mount top Mattress

Now I am haggling with the insurance company over the mattress. I will not let another Italian upholsterer touch our mattress. They offered us $200 and I said for what? That won't buy a new mattress if I could even find one in Italy. I requested they either buy us a new mattress and ship it from the US, or, they can buy us a new mattress when we get back. In the meantime, we will order a memory foam topper from the US and try using that for the next 1 1/2 years to get us by.

I am tempted to rip off the cover he put on there and see what kind of padding is underneath. Is the remnant of our old pillow top there, or did he remove it to put the new cover on? I can't do anything with it until the insurance settles.

Meanwhile I feel like the Princess and the Pea, as it seems I can feel the rocks in my mattress!

Postscript:

Several months after returning to the US we finally went out shopping for a new mattress to replace the once "repaired" in Italy. I guess we got so used to it, we had forgotten how uncomfortable it was. Well, before we let the delivery company haul away the old mattress, we couldn't resist removing the cover glued on the top by the Italians so we could see what we have been sleeping on all this time. Well, here is the reveal:

Original mattress covering with layers added by Italian repairman

The black layer of fabric is very stiff and reminds us of the compressed fiber material used as a firewall in vehicles. Then there is a layer foam, then batting, and finally the new cover. All this was glued in place on top of the original top.