supermarket food in rome

Sorry I can't compare with Spokane, not the US having left many years ago.

I can compare with the UK and northwest Europe.

It is my experience that the further south in Europe you go the more people dislike supermarkets and use local outdoor markets for their shopping. This is especially true in Italy and France.

You will find local, fresher, and often cheaper fruit and veg, fish and meat, bread and pastries than you will get at a supermarket.

That being said the huge French hypermarkets Auchun and Carrefour are making huge strides into Italy. You generally find them in similar locations that you might find Wal-Mart. In the center of cities, like Rome, you will find small versions of Casino and other supermarkets which are more expensive than larger versions of the same chain a bit more suburban.

Hope this helps...

If you can get to the hypermarkets, the prices will be comparable to the United States (except for pork and beef which will be higher). Pre-cooked chickens will be about the same. Produce will be a tad cheaper, but not enough to balance out the meat.

The smaller markets in the center of the towns will be cheaper than a convenience store, but not much.

Fruit and produce places, as Nigel stated, will be a bargain in quality and price.

Fresh bread will be less expensive and better.

Pasta, with minimal meat, will be the best you can do for a hearty, economical meal. Essentially, if you think stews and casseroles rather than steaks and chops, you can come out about the same as you do at home.

Trisha,

We have been to Rome twice and because we both have food restrictions, we bought basic food items in Supermarket in Rome. In the Termini train station they have one supermarket and the other one (Upim, I think) is near Santa Maria Maggiore. Prices are more or less comparable. Hope this helps.

Here is a site for an Italian supermarket chain. In Italian of course! It should give you a rough idea of product and price range.

http://www.esselungaacasa.it/ecommerce/superstore.do

We have found that the fresh produce in Italian supermarkets was of excellent quality. And the deli section in some of the larger ones are eye-opening in their range and quality.

PS - meant to post this list of supermarkets in Rome

http://www.mercuriusrelocations.com/guide/id140.html

That is a tough one. I don't even know how prices in Spokane compare to Denver. Marcia tends to think things are cheap in Denver when compared to Chicago and Orlando (where the kids are) when we visit. Wine is much cheaper as is some bread products. However for canned/packaged items we tend to think they are about the same -- $1 in US and 1E in Europe -- which is a 30% premium. And we notice that much of the packaging is smaller. That would be a very good question for RonInRome.com.

Thanks everyone! Great tips!

The person who said more or less comparable to prices here in the U.S. is correct. I was pleasantly surprised by the cost of supermarket food in Rome. I used the "Coca-Cola Test" everywhere I went. Since Coke was consistent I would judge restaurant, supermarket, etc. prices by how much Coke cost. If Coke was reasonable, I figured most other prices were too. If Coke was expensive, I figured prices were probably high. The "Coca-Cola Test" was a quite and fairly accurate way to judge prices at least for me.