In Paris, my wife and I were big fans of the Monoprix store for our quick eats or groceries. Is there a similar type of store in Rome or Venice, or will we have to stick with open air markets if we do not want to go to restaurants? These markets will be fine, I just don't know if we will find Orangina in a fridge there!
I don't know about Venice, but in Rome there are two chain grocery stores that are easy to find: Carrefour and Despar. They are often small, but have meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies, drinks, bread... as well as toiletry items and odds and ends. Look at the RS guidebooks for locations, or ask at your hotel. And take your own shopping bag! Buon viaggio.
You can just about always find a supermarket within walking distance in any major European city. I just suggest you ask your hotel's front desk where it is.
You can also usually find them on Googlemaps for the area you're staying if you hit "+++" and magnify the area. A little icon will pop up showing food stores.
In Venice, we usually shop at Coop. Supermarket with everything you need.
If you go to Googlemaps, and search for supermarkets in Venice, you'll see a whole bunch. Zoom in and you'll see exactly where they're located. I remember going to one on Strada Nuova. Have fun!
Yep, there are Coop's in Venice as well. Shopped at the one on Calle Pedron in San Polo this past September. There are several more throughout the city.
What neighborhoods are you staying in? As mentioned above, there are grocery stores everywhere, though mostly small compared to Monoprix. Perhaps with knowledge of your exact lodgings we can give you exact locations for your shopping fun.
DK,
If you're close to Termini station, as I recall there's a Conad store down one level from the tracks, and they sell groceries as well as deli items such as pre-made sandwiches, etc.
They are everywhere, although the largest big box stores are usually outside of the historical centers (the City doesn't allow the Walmart size stores there), therefore in the historical center you will find only smaller supermarkets or just shops.
Contrary to popular belief Italians don't shop just at open air markets. Most go to regular supermarkets, unless they happen to live near an open air market. I, for example, rarely went to a market because I didn't live near one, and we only had a day a week with a farmers market coming to the neighborhood.
We shopped at the Coop near Santa Maria Formosa in Venice on Salisada San Lio. The grocery store had everything we needed for lunches.
DK, can't you get by with just a Grom?
I'm afraid that Grom would only cover the following food groups:
Chocolate
Ice Cream
Fruits
Nuts
and Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Oh, and chocolate.
Oh wait, that is all the basic food groups, and good for jetlag, too.
While in Venice, we shopped at the Conad on Fondamenta Rio Marin. It's open late and has a really good selection. BTW - if you're looking for an apartment, there's a really nice one just above the grocery store...
In Rome, we shopped at the inCoop (Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 39). While it had a good selection of packaged goods, we were a little underwhelmed at the selection of fresh goods. It was, however, convenient to our (awesome!) Piazza Navona apartment.
Pardon me, I'm running to Grom
not specific to Rome or Venice but the COOP stores are huge in Italy. Beats any grocery store in the USA that I have seen.
Yum - Grom near the Luxembourg Garden in Paris, too!