Sex workers during a demonstration for the legalization of sex as work near the Colosseum on April 30, , in Rome, Italy. This looked like the easiest way to earn extra cash. I prostitute myself in the evenings when my family is away β kids at the pool, husband doing extra shifts β just a few hours that allow me to earn euros per week and double my income. According to the Department for Equal Opportunities, 35 percent of the 20, prostitutes in Italy, or some 7, women, are house practitioners.
These ladies, many of whom lead parallel second lives, do not just sell their bodies in exchange for money but also for furs, jewels and extra holidays. Politics also is driving the trend.
The Italian parliament banned prostitution in , shuttering brothels. However, Italy is home to the Vatican, which opposes legalization, and devout Catholic politicians still follow what the church preaches. In the meantime, the Italian police have cracked down on the street action and prostitution-linked online forums. The foreign hot spot is Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland.
He leaves their duplex apartment in the border town of Ventimiglia when clients arrive; some of them have driven all the way from France. Unlike these pros, many house practitioners ignore health risks , Venturelli says. This new wave of second-job sex workers is just the latest of a series of changes that are pushing Italian prostitution indoors.
Multinational streetwalkers share apartments and clients to cut down on expenses and boost revenues, while many massage rooms and beauty parlors now operate as brothels. The closure of brothels in Italy has only moved the practice from indoor to outdoor and now back indoor β but in a bad way. Trainer Brandon Payne never made it as a big-time basketball player, but his NBA roster continues to grow.
