It became obvious on the bus ride home from the first concert in San Miniato that at least 30 Orianians were going to be doing their laundry the next day!
After little Internet research and a little listening to what was going on around us in the morning, we ascertained that one nearby laundromat was closed and the other nearby laundromat had about 30 Orianians heading there to do their laundry.
We (Jo E, Caroline, Dawn & Kath) hatched what we thought was a cunning plan…
We would get a taxi to the Lavanderia automatica Bolle di Sapone, which was at least a 20 minute walk away but had very good reviews. We’d do our laundry at speed with no queues, have a coffee and let Dawn rest her weary knee. Then we would have time to go up the Furnicular, perhaps have a massage and a little nap before rehearsal and performance tonight. Well…the best late plans of mice and men…
The calm before the laundry…
I had a hard time convincing these unbelievers that yes, each of our bags of washing would fit into an 8 kg machine. There was a lot of shaking of heads and ‘naaaah – it’s not going to fit; uh uh, no….there is no way…’ but they were talking to somebody who ran an Airbnb and could fit 6 sets of queen size sheets into a 14kg machine! Pffffft!! This machine was not going to beat me – 8kg is dry weight and we had way less than that. We shoved everything in and the fact that the door closed was proof it did indeed fit! With the help of a local bloke we got the machine on and running.
Wot?!?!?
We left Dawn guarding our clothes lest some impassioned Italiano had heard us singing and wanted to steal our thunderpants as a souvenir. We walked down to a nearby cafe, had a pleasant drink and a loo break (we’ve gathered now that these are to be taken at every single available opportunity). We got back to discover our trusty clothes guard was fast asleep on the job. It looked as though our machine was spinning merrily away but completely empty. Egads!
Sleeping Beauty
Fear not! There’s was sooooooo much room in the machine that it was plastered to the walls of the drum!
It’s empty!!
While waiting for the last 10 minutes Kath did some colouring in and Caroline left a nice Maori greeting from NZ.
Artists from Downunder
The last part of the cycle rotated the drum rapidly each direction a few times. This shakes the clothes off the drum wall but managed to tangle them into a ball in the process. It made getting the clothes out rather interesting… it’s was shades of The Enormous Turnip…
The girl pulled the girl who pulled the washing…
The same bloke who helped us with the machine helped us with the dryer – especially when I got a little panicky thinking I was cooking some of the more delicate items. He assured us we could open the machine then resume it. He was wrong. Nevermind- another €2.50 and an extra 15 minutes wasn’t the end of the world. Kath developed a very efficient system of filling the dryer…
Kath should try-our for the Wallabies
It was a bit of a job working out who owned what and there was a small amount of bra-confusion but we soon sorted that out…
I don’t think we got it right
The only hiccup was that the non-English-speaking taxi operator kept hanging up on me when I tried to order a return taxi – even when I spoke (what I thought was) Italian. We were saved by our wonderful hotel staff who ordered one for us. The hotel reception staff have been marvellous and Taxi driver number 29 is highly recommended!
So, Erle & Melissa whizzed past us this morning and Erle said ‘take photos, we’ll blog it!’, Melissa said, ‘Share the load!’ I was thinking – is she talking about sharing the machine or various folk doing blogs about their adventures?? If the latter it is going to be a boring blog. Turns out it was a lot of fun and gave us more than a few laughs. We also learned a few things:
- It turns out a 30 minute cycle is really 45 minutes
- A 15 minute drying cycle is not enough to get four loads of combined washing dried – especially if one of us panics and pulls out bits and pieces midcycle
- It pays to put your initials on similar looking clothing – especially undies
- Bras change shape and sizes and even colour in industrial machines – who knew?
- Locals are super helpful and know where Australia is but not New Zealand…harrumph
- The taxi company probably thought I was a scam caller from foreign shores – twice
- Hotel Settentrionale Esplanade has wonderful reception staff
- Some people can sleep through several machines washing and drying
- Nothing is impossible when you are with friends and laugh a lot