Pharmacies in Venice, Florence, Castiglio del Lago and Rome

1) Ask at your hotel

2) Look for a sign that says "Farmacia."

They're all over the place.

Pharmacies are everywhere in Italy. Look for the signs with a big green cross ~ like the Red Cross symbol, but green. All pharmacies are marked with these signs.

Karen, They really are everywhere. As we got off the train in Rome Termini coming from Assisi, we needed a pharmacy to treat hives. Right there in Termini around binario (track) 2 was a pharmacy. There were two people on duty...one spoke perfect English and gave us what we needed. This was just two weeks ago. You will have no problem.

You will have no problem finding a pharmacy during normal business hours. Understand that evenings and weekends, only a few pharmacies will be open. In most towns, they trade off and you'll see a sign in the door of the closed ones to tell you who is open.

You need a pharmacy for every medicine from aspirin on up. So pay attention to closing times.

This is a duplicate posting.

I was just in Venice a week and half ago and had a TERRIBLE headcold. They had quite a few pharmacies pretty easy to find from the sign - I think they had a green + symbol or Pharmacia sign). But if you're looking for any sort of cold medication be warned that it's hit and miss as to what you're taking!
Having an italian phrase book with a section on 'health' and how to ask for certain things was very helpful!