I commented to a colleague who had lived in Italy much longer than I that I couldn't understand all of these young people (men and women) on the trains on the weekends with huge suitcases. He said it they were hauling their laundry home on the weekends to be done by Mamma.

The phenomenon is called "mammone," and it is well documented and personally witnessed. In my gym, one of the many ways you can tell the Americans from the Italians. We are the ones whose gym clothes aren't ironed.

http://www.venicexplorer.net/indexfast.php?hlangs=en This lists laundries

mhillsupt: do you remember the name of the lavendaria that you went to in Capri? that is exactly what I am looking for -- drop off and pick up.. how about the one in Positano-- how did you contact the person? thanks in advance.

btw, thank you all for the information.

In 17 days you should be able to wash your own clothes in your hotel room and hang them to dry. I wear Chico Black pants with stretch in them. They dry overnight especially in the places you are going. The weather is warm there. Bring T-shirts that can be worn more than one day and have some lycra/cotton in them. I use the bar of soap provided or you could bring some in a little bottle. Just make sure you pack light. Don't waste precious time looking for a laundry. When you arrive in your room wash out some clothes, hang them up and hit the streets. They will be dry in the morning.

MHILLSUPT: do you remember the name of the lavendaria that you went to in Capri? that is exactly what I am looking for -- drop off and pick up.. how about the one in Positano-- how did you contact the person? thanks in advance.

My friend and I just returned from 2 weeks in Italy and we did not wash clothes at all in fact we still took too many clothes. We pretty well lived in our same black pants, dark capris, black skirt, T shirts, black vest and black jacket, mixing and matching, and even used the same for opera and dinners with added scarves or jewllery. One good pair of walking shoes and a pair of black walking sandals that we used for dress up as well. We only washed socks and under clothes out in sink a couple of times. All of our clothes were wrinkle proof light weight stretchy material that looked smart and we never saw the same people twice so it really did not matter. We showered twice a day and aired our clothes at night. We come from a society where we never wear anything more than once and then throw into the wash and this was a great experience seeing just how little we could travel with and still feel good.
We used planes, trains and buses and it was good to be able move around easily, not like most of the tourists that could not even lift thier own suitcases on to the trains. If I ever go again I will leave at home much more, like flashlight, clock, extra jewllery, 3rd set of shoes, jacket, extra blouses, housecoat and take more bandaids, blister packs for toes and cold medication. I got a bad head cold and they do not sell what I needed like Nyquil and Dayquil.