Shopping In Italy

Written By: Genna Gotts

Major: Fashion Design

Location: Florence, Italy

If you didn’t already know, Italy and Florence in particular, is a fashion capital of the world. So when it comes to shopping this is the place to be. However, I never said it was going to be quick and easy. Even though this is the place to shop that doesn’t mean it’s the simplest place to do so. Unlike at home everything you need is not easily located in one store. Here in Italy if you need everyday groceries you go to the grocery store just like at home. At grocery stores you can buy simple things like cereal, milk, pasta, e.c.t. However you do not get your produce and meats here. For these things you should go to the fresh market. This doesn’t mean that the grocery store doesn’t sell produce and meats, it just simply means that your not adopted to the culture if you buy those things there. Another example would be shopping for tights. Normally you could go to a khloe's and buy your tights, socks, dresses, shirts, and even a toaster if you wanted. Here, if you need tights you go to the womens tight store. Yes that's right, they have stores specified in all kinds of tights. Now this doesn’t mean that all stores don’t sell tights but it does mean that by the time you found a store that did sell them you could have visited all of the different tigh specified stores in all of Florence. These are just some of the examples of how Italy works. Not everything is easily located at a one stop shop. However this makes finding things more special, and I’ve noticed that I’m not buying a lot of unnecessary things that I normally do when I shop at Target for example. You see it, you want it, and you end up buying it even though you were never even shopping for it. It may not be what we are used to at home but that doesn’t make it bad or good, it’s just different and that's what studying abroad is all about.

Categories: Italy, Shopping, Adventure, Culture