Italy: Coming in from (or going out into) the Cold

After having a few weeks of cold weather and (outside city centers), plenty of snow, it looks like spring has already sprung in Italy.  Flowers seem to be blooming, people going for walks outdoors...T-shirts being pulled out of the upper echelons of closets which house all our summer clothes.  The ritual being the swapping of winter/summer closets which takes place at every solstice.  
Of course, the funny thing about this ritual is one shirt that is never allowed so much as a single day of reprieve: la maglietta della salute - the A-shirt of good health - a fixture of Italian culture as strong and revered as the Pantheon itself.  It's an undershirt that is used as a talisman to ward off colds, back aches, even the dreaded cervicale - the stiff neck curse.

Foto from Umarells 
http://umarells.wordpress.com

What I love about the undershirts is they're used from about the time you issue from the womb right up to the day you're laid to rest in the tomb.  Mammas wrap their bambini in them, women's sites chat about the necessity to use them or iron them, journalists ponder its benefits and cultural impact. So iconic, I even found a band called La Maglia della Salute...!


As for me, they always leave me with the idea that underneath that tidy, pressed-white shirt is a layer of Vicks Vapo-rub just sticking to it, better for you to inhale its healing ethers...But whether or not wearers truly get fewer colds and illnesses has yet to be tested by the National Center of Research.  


Nevertheless, incredibly, even vampires seem to wear them to ward off something...perhaps garlic?  Scroll down on that page for image of Twilight star with his undershirt sticking out...while above, all colored sections are live links.