Laundry Facilities
 

How common are laundry-mats in Italy? We'll be there for a month and will only pack for seven-ten days. We can wash out some in our room, but would like to do laundry of pants/shirts once. Also, anyone know the approx. charge for sending out laundry per load. We'll be in large cities and small villages, and in budget, inexpensive or moderate hotels. Thanks in advance.

With a whole month, I urge you to see if you can find a villa/rental/partment to stick in the middle. Doing laundry is always a bummer. It reduces the sting quite a bit to be able to do it while eating breakfast in your pajamas. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

France, England, and other countries seem to have a lot of self-service laundramats, but they are very hard to find in Italy (I know, I've looked on a number of extended trips). On the other hand you are more likely to find a place where they take laundry and charge you by the kilo rather than by the piece, saving you a lot of money. Sometimes these places look like laundramats and sometimes they look like a standard cleaners. We have also had success with having a maid take laundry home, do it and return it the next day at a fantastically low price. That was the only time I've ever had jockey shorts ironed! Even though a hotel may offer (expensive) laundry service, it might be worth it to explain to them that you have a lot of it and don't want to spend a fortune paying by the piece. You might ask if there is a place nearby that will take it by the load, or if a maid might be interested in doing it for you. I was a little afraid to ask at first, for fear of just seeming cheap, but my requests have always been cheerfully answered, and often with a reassuring, "yes, I know what you mean."

Are there fewer laundraments in Italy then there were 30 years ago. We had no problems finding them at that time. The only problem we had was finding one that was open as it was August and everyone was on holiday. <BR>

Do the 'drop-off' laundries "launder" or dry clean or both? Anyone know the Italian term for dry clean only??? I need to know for this summer. Thanks

Hopefully, someone who speaks Italian as their first language can confirm this: <BR> <BR>lavagio a secco = dry-cleaning <BR> <BR>esclusivamente = exclusively, or only <BR>

thanks, Rex

Also be aware that you will probably have to leave your laundry overnight and it will be relatively expensive, even if you are using a service at a villa. Energy costs are quite high in Italy and clothes are not usually washed as often as Americans tend to do. (Most of us would be uncomfortable wearing a t-shirt twice without laundering it, especially in the summer heat.)

I believe the term for dry cleaners is "lavanderie a secco" in Italy (and lavaggio has two g's, ie, "lavaggio a secco" for dry-cleaning). You can find these places ahead of time if you want in the Italian yellow pages, which are online. I have not used the English section so am not sure how well that would work, but in Italian, you put in "lavanderie self service" (that is the best term to use in my experience to get both laundromats and dry cleaners, I've tried variations so know that works) into the search box for "cosa" and then the name of the town in the place ("dove"), place name should be in Italian (Roma, Milano, etc). It gives 32 in Milan and 26 in Rome and only 1 in Venice, for example. It should be easy to discern cleaners from self-service laundromats, I hope, in the Italian if you use that section (eg, "lavanderie self service ad acqua e a secco" is self service laundromat both water and drycleaning, a single place may be named "lavanderia" or "lavanderia automatica").

Theres' a laundrymat on Via Faenza in Florence, about a block up from the Madici Chapel. Right across from a Cappacino bar. You can watch your laundry has you have a refreshment.

When we stayed in Venice last fall there was a laundermat almost next door. It was easy to use.

Definitely do the drop off thing! these places launder (not dry-clean) your clothes just like in the US. You pay by the kilo though I don't remeber how much. It was not awfully expensive though, very omparable to US I remember. (And yes, sometimes when I am really busy, I drop off the whole family laundry to be done in US, its about $1/lb.) It is especially worth it not to have to waste a day of sightseeing to go to a laundry. we arrived in Venice one evening and were going to be staying 2 days, so we dropped out laundry off that evening and picked it up the next afternoon. I think they actually even would deliver it back to the hotel for you, but we didn't find that out until we went to pick it up!

I couoldn't resist this juxtaposition:) <BR> <BR>7. Bath International <BR> Festival <BR> No replies; topic posted <BR> 04/23/2001, 14:28 pm ET <BR> <BR> 8. Laundry Facilities <BR> 11 responses; most recent <BR> on 04/23/2001, 14:26 pm <BR> ET