Old World vs New

US school children are seemingly taught that their countrymen invented everything useful. We hear about Edison and Bell but what about Marconi, Galileo and DaVinci? At right is an example of ingenuity -- I can't explain whose original idea this was but it's a feature of most every Italian house or apartment. Italian kitchens are sold in component kits, sort of like Campagnolo or Shimano. You might remember the Del Tongo team of Giuseppe Saronni years ago -- Del Tongo makes kithcn cabinets as does SCIC, Salvarani, etc, all have sponsored cycling teams in the past - marketing their kitchens to the Italian housewives who were home in the afternoon when the Giro was broadcast on TV. This ingenious cabinet, located directly over the sink, allows one to simply rack the dishes as they are rinsed -- no drying! We leave the dishes stored in the top rack as shown here, taking them down only to use, then replacing them in the slots when they're freshly washed and ready to use again. The utensils hang below in the same method - hooks are sold everywhere for this purpose and they simply hang from the wire mesh rack above