Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping in Florence is definitely different than what I am used to. Living in Rochester my whole life, I was fortunate enough to grow up with multiple Wegmans locations in my town. For those of you who don’t know, Wegmans is a grocery store but it is not like any ordinary grocery store. I won’t go on and on about it but if you’re interested in learning more about the awesomeness that is Wegmans, here’s an article: https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/why-wegmans-is-the-greatest-supermarket-ever

The first grocery store that I went to in Florence was Carrefour. In my mind, I was expecting a giant fruit and vegetable section, a huge array of cheeses and meats, and endless amounts of pasta. When I walked in, I soon realized how small it really was. I knew that I couldn’t buy a ton of groceries while I was there because I had to carry all of it home, haul it up 4 flights of stairs and shove in into my small fridge. I ended up buying a bunch of pre-packaged meat, a box of barilla pasta, barilla pasta sauce and a bag of salad. I think that the main reason why I bought a bunch of pre-packaged stuff and chose to go to a grocery store instead of the market was that I wanted the least amount of interaction with the workers because I didn’t know any Italian and was embarrassed to even try and speak it.

After finding all the items that I wanted to buy, I proceeded to the cashier to check out. After she scanned everything, I soon found out that I needed to purchase grocery bags and bag my own groceries. I bought a paper bag, shoved everything in it, and walked home.

Now, I like to think of myself as a “grocery shopping pro”. I bring my own reusable bag and I typically go to the market for a majority of my food and only go to the grocery store if I don’t have time to make it to the market. Shopping at the market is a lot cheaper than the grocery store and I am able to speak to the venders. The venders are super friendly and willing to work with me while I speak a mixture of Italian and English. Some of them recognize me as I return each time. One of the meat venders always gives me multiple samples when I walk up to his stand and always offers me a “special price” for the prosciutto that I buy.