Best things to buy in Italy?

[Endlessdark]

What’s your go to buys in Italy, e.g best supermarket hot chocolate, soaps etc! We have a huge Familia supermarket near us so I would love to get some goodies!

What region? No point giving you national recommendations IMHO - as a generally rule of thumb if you can get it nationally in Italy you can also get it in the UK.

If you have space, as in hand luggage sufficient not to squash, I'd bring figs (if you like). The fug harvest this year has been terrible due to the heat wave last month .... the majority of ours fell off. What figs do make it to UK will be v expensive.

Buy a small pack of Pocket Coffee and check you like them before you buy a lot. They are STRONG and an acquired taste. I like Mon Chéri but they are liqueur chocolates so to be avoided if you don’t drink.

Crodino is a Campari brand (and increasingly widely available - as well as Waitrose and Ocado I have seen it in Sainsbury’s).

@fridaseyebrows Ocado sell SanBitter Rosso. https://www.ocado.com/products/san-pellegrino-san-bitter-aperitif-472996011?ds_rl=1291426&ds_rl=1291534&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrfymBhCTARIsADXTabny202LIhPvqBZIEfQxatXtCOhk9tNkVcffhLK98nrDIR-UIW2XgHMaAjJUEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I’d give Pocket Coffee a swerve because any you find now will be old stock.
They make it a marketing point to remove them in the Summer and bring in fresh stock in October.
Withdrawal and return

Salted capers

I had completely forgotten about this but you are absolutely right!

I live in Italy and the one thing I take to the UK is stock cubes. Way more flavoursome and tasty than an Oxo. Make the biggest difference to any bolognese or meat sauce. Full of salt and additives obvs, but it's why the sauces taste better here, 😂 it's fuck all to do with the tomatoes and all to do with the Knor/Star/Maggi dado di brodo. (under the packet soup in the supermarket)
I don't take anything else tbf. Good pasta/tinned tomatoes I buy in bulk from Amazon for DD at uni.

It’s the MSG

Just out of interest @So1invictus are you British born? Being here has made me desperate to move here! Any chance there’s a cry out for midwives (obstetric nurses?!) here?! I’d obviously have to learn the language which it’s most probably very difficult! A girl can dream though! 😁

I am British yes, I came here in 1994 for 2 years. 😂
My daughter has gone the other way though and is at uni in the UK. Says she'll never come back to Italy. Not enough job opportunities sadly.

Italian Universities are turning out hundreds of nurses every year but once they’ve finished their work experience (unpaid labour) they hit a brick wall.

Each regional health authority has a “graduatoria” or waiting list of people qualified to work for them but the contracts never materialize. The hospitals use outside contracts, so no job security, and stretch the existing staff to breaking point. DS is reaching the end of his medicine degree and is basically given a nurse’s role when he’s doing work experience on the ward.

Brexit employment problems would probably make you an unviable prospect for private hospitals, too.

The only time nurses were being employed within days was intensive care during Covid.
Cannon fodder.

@So1invictus oh such a shame, it’s funny isn’t it how we go the other way. I was raised in a tiny village in Northern Ireland and moved to London at 17 and haven’t been back! I’m now craving a quieter life though so maybe your dd will do the same! 🤣

@Sgtmajormummy thats really interesting, I had heard that their health service is struggling but assumed it couldn’t be as bad as the nhs. Your poor son though! Maybe I will win the lottery and can retire here without a need for a job 😆 luckily I hold an Irish passport so hopefully no brexit problems?! Although I was trained in the UK so I have no idea if the degree translates straight over.

👍