Italian television presenter Federico Arnaldi revealed that he experienced intense cultural shock after encountering a traditional village toilet during his first trip to Russia.
The broadcast host shared his impressions during an episode of the talk show We and They, which was made available on the VK Video platform.
Arnaldi explained that he first encountered a Russian rural toilet while staying as a guest with the relatives of his partner. He recalled how the host of the house walked him outside to show him what looked like a neat white dollhouse decorated with blue paint and patterns.
When the homeowner opened the door and identified the structure as the toilet, Arnaldi said he looked inside and observed that there was no actual toilet bowl installed, only a hole in the floor.
He added jokingly that seeing the wooden outhouse prompted him to ask himself several questions, including how deep the hole was and what kind of wild animals might emerge from inside it.
Surprises of Russian domestic life
The experience was not the only aspect of life in Russia that caught the Italian presenter off guard. Arnaldi previously named three specific habits of daily life in the country that surprised him, including the common Russian practice of taking off shoes when entering a home.
Customs regarding household footwear and rural sanitation often differ between Southern Europe and regional Russian communities, where standalone outhouses remain present in smaller villages across the countryside.
Career on Russian television
Arnaldi is best known to audiences in Russia as the presenter of Poedem, poedim!, a popular weekend travel and culinary program broadcast on the national television network NTV.
The show features its hosts exploring regional cuisines, local traditions, and cultural landmarks across Russia and international destinations. NTV is one of Russia's major commercial television networks, broadcasting nationwide entertainment and news programming.
VK Video, the online platform where the interview was released, is a major Russian video hosting service operated by VK, the technology company behind the country's largest social network.
