Laundry in Siena

One of the drawbacks to traveling light—-and having only a few changes of clothes—-is that we find ourselves doing laundry fairly frequently. Small things we’ll do in the hotel sink, but we need a real washer for the big stuff. In Siena one morning we dragged our bag onto the city bus and went to a Laundromat just off Il Campo. Even though it can be a nuisance, it’s become almost therapeutic to do laundry. It’s a bit of a break from travel stresses to spend time in a vaguely familiar environment, take care of some necessary chores, and enjoy a feeling of accomplishment and control... as long as you have clean socks and underwear, everything else seems a little more manageable.

I like the contrast of coming from narrow medieval streets into a modern Laundromat. Outside are cobblestones and Palio banners; inside I zone out as our clothes spin, and an Italian-dubbed "A-Team" rerun plays on a giant TV above the washers.*

While loading our machines we met a couple from Johannesburg who were traveling through Italy for several weeks, with their toddler in tow (the kid was in remarkably good spirits for being dragged to a boring laundromat). The time went quickly as we talked about (what else) travel... once they had spent six months in South America, and they had friends who had done RTW trips similar to ours. It's been helpful trading stories & advice-- it seems to happen often now; like we've gained entry into some unknown fraternity of world travelers (or masochists). We got some good advice about South Africa, and an open invitation for drinks when we reach Johannesburg next month.

Their best piece of information? A restaurant they happened upon the night before, just a block away. After finishing our laundry we went there for lunch. It was a tiny, family-run place with maybe only 6 tables. The burly old father rattled off the menu very quickly in Italian, so our choices were limited to what we could understand over the din of the room. It turned out to be easily the best meal we've had so far in Italy... we rolled out of there drowsy and stuffed full of ossobuco, hand-nade pasta and chianti....aahhh...

* (Other old shows the Italians love: MacGyver, and Magnum PI. Both great fun to watch dubbed in Italian. It's watching Magnum PI that reminds me how much I look like Higgins in all my stupid hi-tech fast-drying pseudo-safari REI travel clothes)