Doing laundry in Florence

We had great success with doing laundry in both Florence and La Spezia. You're in and out in less than 90 minutes. Everything is coin operated. The soap may come out of the machine as a large disk. You need to break this up and put it in the machine. It's a small chore but worth much more than increasing the size of your luggage. The owner of the launderia that we went to spoke English which was nice. The launderia we went to was near the mercato centrale. It's on Via Guelfa just over 1 block east of Via Nazionale. However, they seem to be everywhere.

laundromats are plentiful..i actually used one of the many in florence...absolutly no problem; i just walked around the area while it was being done; it was actually fun!

Thanks Jim! Do you recallwhat neighborhood you were in?

Anne - I remember seeing a laundrymat on Via Guelfa - which is not far from the train station.

All the laundromats that we have used over the years were staffed. For an extra Euro or two they will wash, dry it and fold within a couple of hours. Well worth it.

ummm "what neighborhood"..frieze is very small, and i didn't notice a difference in "neighborhood"..it was just close to the dome, and on the way to my hostel..there were no attendents, which was fine..i felt like a local. :]

Most self-service laundromats in Florence have machines where you insert coins and get tokens for the washer and dryer. Set aside some Euro coins as you travel to use in the machines. Last time I used a laundromat in Florence, a gypsy woman tried to sell me fake tokens. Be alert to that scam.

ya know frank? i tried REALLY really tried hard not to be that kind of obnixious "american"..was in rome , florence, and naples 2 weeks, but towards the end i was YELLING at the gypsies, beggers, ESPECIALLY the women carrying babies obviously drugged..it pissed me off, and got me depressed...if i ever [and i hope i can] get back there, i will be that american..and to those going there: be a jerk, just SCREAM at these ppl to leave you alone.be loud, be obnoxious.maybe they might actually raise their kids differently, maybe they will consider a new "career"..in any case: they don't want untoward attention, and will scatter like the rats they are....sorry if this seems mean..but: THAT was the most sad, disconcerting, and depressing thing about the whole trip.next time: NO COMPASSION.

Jim as far as I'm concerned all the rules on how to behave don't apply to gypsies, thieves and beggars. They harass people and play on the fact that you don't want to cause a scene!

Rick's Italy book recommends the Wash & Dry Lavarapido chain. Via del Servi 105 (near David), Via del Sole 29 red and Via della Scala 52 red (between train station and river). Several others; I can give you the whole list if these don't match your area.

Jim, I didn't have to act badly. When I responded that I'd prefer to buy real tokens from the machine, she knew she was busted and quietly left.

We did laundry in Florence. We stayed near Santa Croce and found a place a few blocks away on Via Ghibellina (in Rick's book). It was self-service, but small (only 4 washers and 2 dryers). It took only 30 min to wash and 25 min to dry. No one bothered us while we were there. It cost 6 euro total plus 50 cents for detergent. We ended up doing laundry twice during our 2 week stay, and it was much easier and less time consuming than we expected.

Off topic, but based on the previous posts about problems with gypsies... I actually found the rose and annoying toy vendors to be more aggressive in Italy than the gypsies. In Venice, the guys with the Roses were practically forcing the roses in my face, in my folded arms and would not leave us alone. The gypsies typically went on to the next person when we said "No" forcefully and turned our backs on them (with our hands on our wallet and purse).