In the province of Varese, Cristiana and Francesco Rastelli have inherited from their father, Giancarlo, a passion for their business which has made their laundries a benchmark for the entire area: from industry to sports clubs and even the public library.
It’s nice, comforting, to know that all the world passes through your shop.
Obviously not the world in a geographical sense, but “all the world “meaning an entire community, made up of people, groups, traditions. As in the case of the laundry La Perfetta located in Gerenzano, in the province of Varese. It is the “parent company” which another two laundries by the same name, in Rescaldina and Saronno, as well as the Legnano laundry, La Tradizionale, report to.
Still on the subject of territory, suffice it to scroll through La Perfetta’s list of customers on the company website to confirm its universal recognition. Municipal authorities, big hotels, historic industries, sports clubs, healthcare canters, restaurants and even the public library and the Red Cross.
Meaning therefore that “all that world” made up of industrious individuals, historic partnerships and famous companies regularly finds the time to pop into the impressive family shop currently run by Cristiana Rastelli who, with her brother Francesco, has taken over the reins of the firmly established business. It was started in 1958 by her father Giancarlo Rastelli who, among other things is happy to lend a hand to his children, in terms of dexterity and experience. Something he built up during a childhood in the Italian provinces which sounds like something out of a novel; an artisan who was born 85 years ago in Villanova sull’Arda, in the province of Piacenza, practically a hair’s breadth away from Giuseppe Verdi’s villa where his mother Albina worked as a maid, serving coffee between the scores of Aida’s and Traviata’s.
“My father moved to Lombardy as a boy and compared to those times – recounts Cristiana Rastelli – a lot of things have changed. Especially a work culture which meant an in-depth knowledge of the value and cost of each single object or garment, of what it meant to be involved in a small-scale laundry like ours. But then those were times when, for the customer, having a pair of trousers cleaned cost the equivalent of eight coffees. Today Mrs. Smith expects to have her son’s trousers perfectly cleaned and ironed for the price of two espressos served at the table”.
A widely recognized sign of the times. A result of the current period during which recession does not just mean a fall in purchasing power but also an unstoppable race to lower prices, a lack of specialized labor and the disappearance of fundamental values such as manual skills. That’s how the specifically personal added value of a business like La Perfetta becomes literally “priceless” and as a result free, since no parameters exist for charging it to the customer. But then – adds Cristiana Rastelli – our customers know that only by coming to us can they be sure that their lace tablecloths will be washed as they should be, their ties perfectly pressed after coming out of the tunnel washer, their daughter’s miniskirt, ripped during a bike ride, perfectly repaired.
Actually “priceless” is the perfect term for describing the entire business of a shop like this which, long gone the time of abundance, when mountains of Loden coats were brought in for cleaning at the end of winter by entire villages, has stayed on the market thanks to its extraordinary ability to adapt.
Showing that the current management, composed of Cristiana and Francesco, really have inherited a vocation from their father Giancarlo and his wife, Piera Pagani, in charge of pressing and a stalwart support at work and at home.
