Shopping in Italy

We have been living in Italy for six weeks now, which has given us the opportunity to do plenty of grocery shopping in Villa San Giovanni. Here are some observations from trips I have taken to local stores here.

1. Shopping for things in a language I am not fluent in is exhausting.

I was already someone who has plenty of empathy for anyone who has migrated to live in a new country, especially where one doesn’t speak the primary language. But my empathy grew three sizes after my first big shopping trip to an Italian grocery store. I assumed it would be fairly easy to sort out what was what, even though I am in the beginning stages of learning Italian. While the thing itself is usually obvious, especially things like coffee, pasta, cereal, reading ingredient labels to understand what something is made out of and what allergens may be present takes concentration and Google Translate. I realized I am not used to having to think much when I am shopping, and getting through my initial trips to the grocery store made me want to lay down and take a nap.

2. The sheer amount of shelf space dedicated to pasta and spring/sparkling water.

I expected there to be many more pasta choices than what I was used to in the United States, but there were two large aisles in the local Super Conad: one dedicated entirely to what I would think of as “regular” pasta and one entirely dedicated to egg-based pasta. I have delighted in all of the different shapes, some of which I have never seen before. There are also dozens of brands of spring water, many of which offer both naturale (still) and frizzante (sparkling) options. Most are sold in cases of six 1.5-liter bottles. I am used to having the options of Crystal Geyser or maybe a store brand to choose from if I needed more than a smallish individual bottle of water in the U.S. Drinking bottled water at home seems like it is much more de rigeur here, but this is pure speculation on my part. The water is also very inexpensive – usually about 35 cents (eurocents?) for a 1.5 liter bottle.

3. Grocery stores encourage folks to live “the sweet life.”

In addition to having their own dedicated aisles, cookies, biscuits, chocolates, cakes, and panettone are shelved in several additional aisles and end caps throughout the store. I don’t know how often people actually buy them, but I would assume if the grocers dedicate that much shelf space to those items, they must sell at a moderate pace. This also led me to realize there do not seem to be many products marketed as “non-fat” and “low-fat.” I have not detected any of the diet-hysteria undercurrent I always felt was present in US grocery stores. I find this to be a big relief. But if there is any subliminal messaging about this I am blissfully ignorant because I understand so little Italian.

4. Baking soda is kept by the sparkling water, and not in the baking aisle.

This made me realize baking soda is the same thing as bicarbonate of soda, and that you could use baking soda to make sparkling water, if you felt so inclined. Wild!

5. Bread does not appear to be available in pre-cut loaves.

No sad loaves of factory-processed sliced white bread at the grocery stores here.  Even better, I have the good fortune of being able to walk down to the local panificio every few days to buy fresh baked loaves of bread. They weigh the bread and sell it by weight instead of individually pricing the loaves. Five smallish loaves (usually 8 to 12 inches in length) usually run me about 3 euro. They taste amazing and, if I go shopping in the morning, the loaves are still warm when the woman running the panifico hands them to me. 

6. The hummus craze has not come to Italy.

There are one or two unappealing shelf-stable hummus options available in truly tiny jars in the foreign foods aisles here, and none of the refrigerated vats of hummus I was used to in the U.S. There is also one brand of very sad, scary tortillas, which we won’t be eating. I just realized this has got to be the longest period of time I have ever gone in my entire life without having a burrito or a taco. I want to embrace the local foods during our time here and so far haven’t felt deprived, as evidenced by my above taco/burrito realization. 

7. Bags of many shelf-stable items are much smaller than similar items in U.S. grocery stores.

I was looking at a bag of tortilla chips when I was at the store a few weeks ago, and I swear the thing was so small there couldn’t have been twelve tortilla chips inside of it. Stores also seem to  have much smaller grocery carts here, although what I think of as “full sized” US-style grocery carts have been available at some stores. I assume this is because people go shopping more frequently. I don’t think it is a comment on portion sizes, based on my experience with restaurants and take out food during our time in Italy.

In his book How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan discusses how as folks grow older, they tend to settle into routines in the ways they think. He says if someone doesn’t find this accurate, they should try moving to a foreign country and see how it impacts their cognitive function on a daily basis. I will always remember hearing this sentence for the first time when I listened the book in 2020, and thinking I would like an opportunity to challenge myself in that way. My recent adventures in shopping have brought this assertion to the forefront of my thoughts. Our adventure into Italy, Ireland, and the unknown is going to challenge us in some ways we won’t even anticipate. But it will help carve new pathways in our minds as we learn how to do new things in new places.