Sunday 8 June: Laundry and pasta

One chore today: laundry. I had almost nothing clean left, and Gary had worn most of his during our trip to the south. We headed out in the morning for the lavanderia. Our route passed through Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the main square in the neighborhood. We go through this piazza several times a day, but I had never been there early Sunday to witness the aftermath of Trastevere’s Saturday evening revelry. The square was literally ankle deep in trash of all kinds, from broken bottles and discarded gelato cups to pizza boxes and discarded clothing. The morning hazmat team was just arriving to clean up. I’m amazed at how the local practice appears to be just trashing the place and then cleaning up, rather than enforce any sort of use of waste cans or recycle bins. We realized how women can walk on the cobblestones in high heel Manolos without breaking a heel: the cobbles are completely filled in with wine corks and cigarette butts.

Laundry was uneventful. There is a bar across the street to get a caffè, and down the block a nice gelateria with outside window and tables under a tree. We amused ourselves there for a while, and then went back to the laundromat to watch MTV Italia while our clothes finished drying. The station’s lineup is funny. American pop and rap alternates with Italian songs, many of which are hilariously bad (well, probably not any more so than US pop, but the novelty of it being in Italian is a contributing factor). We had plans for the morning and wanted to get to bed early, so we had an early dinner at one of the best restaurants near the apartment, on Piazza Santa Maria della Scala. Gary had his favorite, the classic Roman spaghetti alla carbonara, and I decided to have the same. Gelato in the piazza, and early to bed. Sunday night is the second quietest night in Trastevere after Monday, so we actually got some sleep.