Washing clothes

The approximate mid-way point of the trip is in Lucca, and the itinerary says there will be free time there. Your tour guide will certainly be able to tell you how to find a way to do some laundry. The guides are great with any details like that.

Thank you, Rose!

Let me only add: try to think carefully about how you pack, taking clothing that can be hand-washed in just a few minutes at night and be dry by morning. You can even spot-wash things, and press all the moisture out with a towel or the bathmat in the hotel so stuff dries faster. Seriously, you really don't want to be spending precious time in a laundromat when you could be bicycling around the ancient and magnificent ramparts (city walls) of Lucca. Have a great trip!!

Rach, I've found that it's sometimes challenging to find time to do laundry during tours. The easiest solution is to do small washes in the hotel room sink, and then a full laundry about the half-way point in the tour. There should be a "free day" scheduled about then, so you'll have the time. For that method to work well, it's important to choose clothing which will dry fairly well overnight (ie: "travel" clothing). If you wash blue jeans in the sink, there's no way they will be dry by morning. It appears that your "free day" on that tour will be in the Cinque Terre, probably Monterosso. Groups are sometimes split between two hotels there, and if you should happen to be placed in Hotel Villa Steno, you can get laundry done there. As I recall, it's the same price whether you do it yourself on a self-serve basis, or the staff do the laundry for you (therefore I'd suggest getting them to do the laundry while you're out touring, and it will be washed, dried, folded and back in your room when you get back). I don't know if Hotel Pasquale offers the same service. This is assuming of course that your tour stops in Monterosso and not one of the other towns. Your Guide will be able to advise on the best options for laundry during the tour. Happy travels!

We spent two nights in Lucca ( on our own, not a RS tour) and used the self-service laundromat near the northeast city gate--- I can try to find the address for you. It was very clean and modern, and the attendant was very helpful. Be aware the dryers are very hot.

I'm guessing you have a number to call if you have questions about the tour. This is a good question that they should be able to answer. Happy travels.

I can say from experience that the answer you are likely to get if you call the Tour office in advance of your trip is "Your tour guide will be able to help you with details like that during the tour." The tours to the same destinations don't always stay in the same hotels, so the location of laundry facilities in proximity to the hotel could be quite different from one tour to the next. But the tour guide will either know immediately or will get the answer for you.

I'm in Florence and just finishing a Heart of Italy tour! Ken is correct about Villa Steno and it applies to Albergo Pasquale as well. When we checked in to Pasquale we were offered a laundry bag with our check-in packet. I had not planned to do laundry there, but wish I had! We stayed the previous 2 nights in Volterra where I did sink laundry and it was so chilly it did not really get dry! My recommendation is when you pack up from Volterra, layer your laundry on top so you can grab it, stash it in the provided laundry bag and turn it in to the desk. They will need to have it that evening. We were expecting bad weather the next day so Trina, our guide, recommended we hustle to get the last ferry of the day at 5PM, so everyone was in a rush to get into and out of the hotel quickly. I did do some sink laundry in Rome but I was in a single room and the bathroom was so small it was a bit tricky to get it done. In the Hotel Sonya in Rome, the La Locanda in Volterra and the Pasquale, there were those small clothes lines installed in the shower. I dont see one where I am staying in Florence. You will have a wonderful trip!

Sorry, on my Droid and cant edit my reply. Dont count on time in Lucca to do laundry. We were trying to beat some rain, so our tour wound up with just and hour and a half or so for free time, which was barely enough time to grab food for a picnic, do the bike thing and get to the meeting point before we loaded onto the bus. Your eexperience might be different as far as the time frame, but still unlikely to be enough time for laundry. Except for the first few days in Rome, it has been quite chilly, so I recommend doing sink washes the first night of a 2 night stay to give your clothes a good 36 hours to dry. All the hotels have had hair dryers, so you can use that to speed things along.

Thanks so much for the replies! They have all been very helpful in planning. It sounds like the weather has been chillier than expected so I will rethink the packing as well. Much appreciation!!!
Rach

If doing some of your own laundry, do the towel trick. Put the wet piece between two folded towels and step on them in your bare feet. You'd be amazed how much more water you can get out that way. Try to avoid washing blue jeans. They take forever to dry on their own.