In Italy, much like every single other country in the world, it's not uncommon to see girls β with or without penises β stalking street corners, watched over by some volatile pimp in a pleather jacket and a bad haircut. The act of selling yourself isn't actually a crime here, but aiding or inducing the sale of yourself is, which makes hooking kind of tricky, especially if you're not particularly into the thought of spending your evening inside a cell.
For those who want to make a little extra change in partnership with their vagina, however, Switzerland β just across the border β is a haven for sex workers, being one of the few European countries where prostitution is legal.
Bar Oceano, a historical, family-run brothel in the Swiss border town of Lugano, is one of the landmarks of the Swiss sex industry, so Georgio β the photographer β and I drove up there to have a chat with Ulisse, the brothel's year-old owner, and Nicola, his right-hand-man.
We were greeted by a monolithic bouncer and led inside to the brothel's reception. We quickly found out that Ulisse had already gone home for the day to sit in his pyjamas and left his year-old niece Diandra in charge.
Diandra told us a bit about how the brothel usually functions; "The clients come into the lounge, pay the cover charge β which includes a drink β then all the girls line up in front of them. Diandra gave us some good advice should we ever feel like forking out for sex at any point in the future: "Never pick the first girl, they're always the most desperate.
