Saunter by the mountains of Merano

18 September

If there is only one thing to do in Merano, it cannot possibly be washing.

We have been very happy with weather, with only a little rain in Lucca so far. Today we experienced some Southern Tyrol rain, which was not altogether a bad thing. Even when you try and fit in the vastness of Italian offerings, at some stage you need to just turn your back on some of it, and catch up with some normal life.

And so, after a late morning of reading and sleeping, we decided to drive to Bolzano, in search of a laundrette. This is seldom as easy as it sounds, but with perseverance, we eventually found a shady, but functional one, and with reluctance, I left Niel to find parking, and hopefully find me again. Which also sounds easy, but experience has taught me over and over again that there are no guarantees on Niel being able to backtrack himself back to a point.

You tend to learn a lot at laundrettes. The first lesson – how to close a washing machine, which can be useful in its own rights, but then this starts you chatting with people, who can end up offering a wealth of information. This I found at the laundrette. A Dutch dude who seems to be working his way around Italy, who understood the Afrikaans I spoke to Niel, who knew how the washing machines worked, and who advised me on where to find a sim card for internet connectivity. I did however also get some rather advancing looks from two obscure Italians who overloaded a machine with sheets they clearly used in some painting job. But at least I also managed to pass my newly-learnt skills on Italian washing-machine operations to an Italian who even offered me a cup of coffee. Not knowing the customs well enough, I politely declined. You never know what strings these Italians might want to attach to a cup of coffee.

Not the most exciting of Saturdays, but we did manage to attend to some logistrivia, now having enough clean clothes for the balance of the trip, and being the proud owners of an Italian internet sim card. And with a fairly good supper in a pizzeria in Dorf Tirol, an early night completed a good resting day.

Sometimes it’s quite fun to just be everyday people doing everyday things in everyday Italy.