I am american and I sit in my robe and let it absorb the water. Being diabetic, I don’t feel like worrying about any tiny scratches. The only body parts I actively dry are my face, and my feet [part of the self examining for damage thing]
Near Lake Como, so very Northern Italy. It was probably the worst offender which is why we took a picture of it, but we had similar experiences in Rome and somewhere else I don’t even remember. As CookingWithGas mentioned, they were all that thin waffle-weave stuff. Terribly nonabsorbent
This is the best explanation so far. And yes, those are good points.
My remaining thought is that it doesn’t matter how convenient they are, if they don’t work for the intended use, what’s the point? They have the absorbent ability of a a sheet of paper!
Sheets of paper are in fact routinely used as hand-towels in public lavatories, aren’t they?
I think it comes down to how dry you want to be. The girly American towels undoubtedly have superior absorbency, and will dry you more quickly and more thoroughly than those manly Italian jobs. And, having lived in a damp temperate climate (Ireland) and a dry Mediterranean climate (Western Australia) I can say that in Ireland I wanted the kind of drying that can only be acheived with the American-type towel, because a bit damp = chilly, whereas in W.A. my requirements are quite different, because a bit damp = not a problem, and for much of the year a distinct advantage.
This thread has the funniest, and best writing of any thread I’ve read on SDMB.
I have also encountered the thin, disappointing towels in various parts of Europe, but this comment touches on the more annoying aspect of European bathrooms - showers that are either inadequately enclosed or not enclosed at all. A lot of the places I have stayed in had strange half-walls that inevitably resulted in showers that soaked half the room. And you couldn’t mop up the resulting puddles because of the terrible towels. I’d like to know why that design is so prevalent, even in hotels and apartments that look like they’ve been renovated recently.
Also, what’s up with those coarse terry-cloth bedsheets you get sometimes? What’s going on with those?
Maybe you were using the bidet by mistake.
No wonder I was always getting kicked out of hotel rooms!
Oh, and evidently (despite evidence to the contrary) nobody is tall there. My dad can’t ever get a decent shower in a European hotel because he’s over six feet tall and all the showers are those weird adjustable handheld things that can’t be adjusted to spray water on anything taller than his shoulder. (And then it’s all over the floor anyway.)
I have yet to travel to Europe, but I’ve heard stories not about the towels, but the toilet paper; that it’s pretty much a step above newsprint. I’ve heard about EuroTP that is almost like wax paper. When I was in college, one of my friends spent the semester in England. He wrote a letter to me on British toilet paper, which felt almost exactly like air mail stationery.
They don’t even always have toilet paper! (I hear Japan is way worse about that, though.) Plus something I’ve never experienced in the US although I am told it exists - the pay toilet. Look, what if I don’t have any money? What am I supposed to do?
When my parents took their honeymoon in London in 1978 my mom went to the bathroom in the British Museum and says every single sheet of toilet paper was stamped “Property of the Crown” (or similar wording.) She spent a moment wondering if she was allowed to use it or not.
I can imagine British toilet paper with a bunch of royal warrants printed on each sheet. “BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN”, with a polite notice in Gill Sans reminding users to properly flush. It just seems like something they’d do over there.
It’s true, at least in my experience.
I have to go to Europe on business every once in a while, and when I come back I always think to myself that the next time, I’m going to take a roll of American toilet paper with me. But I always forget.
For your business while you’re on business, in other words?
My dad thinks it’s the height of hilarity to ask you all the time overseas how you like the John Wayne toilet paper. (You know, it’s rough, it’s tough, and it don’t take no shit off of anyone.)
Actually I always carry some individually packaged baby wipes, and a tiny roll of travel TP with me, even in america stalls can be out of paper…
The toilet paper is extremely rough in some places, particularly in Eastern Europe. In my experience it’s not so bad in Britain, although it is often weird pastel colours instead of white.
The pay toilet is ubiquitous in some areas. As far as I can tell, what happens when someone doesn’t have any money in a city where free toilets are scarce is that they relieve themselves somewhere else. For example, a back alley. At least this seemed to be true in Prague.
The other fun element is the German-style toilet, where your poos just sit there on a little shelf, taunting you.
I believe you’re supposed to taunt them instead. Grow a spine! (Your poo can’t.)
I’ve read about those! Supposedly health-conscious Germans have gotten into the habit of inspecting their stools.
I inspect mine just before I sit down at the bar. 
Don’t let strange-looking men push in your stool.