Beds'R'Us

The correct Italian bed has two mattresses - one for winter and one for summer - which is understandable as it can be as cold in winter as in England and as hot in summer as in Hell.

The lambswool filling of the winter mattress is taken into the fresh air to be beaten and sifted back to curly, honey-coloured freshness each year, then restuffed into laundered, ticking mattress covers in brown and white stripes. Each smallish section of mattress and stuffing is held in place by pompoms of white cotton that pass through the mattress to be secured on the other side.

The summer mattress is filled with the dried stalks of gran'turco (corn on the cob to you and me), and thrown away at the end of every summer, and clean covers restuffed with this year's dried harvest.

In summer the sleeper has the lambswool under the dried stalks; in the winter the curls are on top. There are a number of cultural corollaries to all this.

First, who can't keep up with the mattress changing, laundering, beating, drying, etc., is frit.
Second, the cleaning of mattress fillings yields second-stage and very serious indications of attempts at magical harm.
Third, any movement on the dried stalks mattress resonates through the building.
Fourth, interspersing bank notes in the crispy mattresses is standard practice - tanto- the crispy notes don't add any more snap, crackle and pop.