On Sunday I had the bright idea to make Tacos for the family. It's not something they have here, of course, but I thought I had seen some at Esselunga earlier in the week. What a surprise to find that the two large grocery stores in the area are closed on Sundays. Sunday stopped being a day of rest long ago in the US, but here in Italy they take rest very seriously. Have I mentioned they have 4-6 weeks of paid vacation every year? But I digress. Instead of tacos we went to the only store that was open, the peschereia (fish store) and I made New England clam chowder for everyone.

In addition to the fish store, in the town of Vado there is the small grocery store called Coop, two fruit and vegetable stores, two butchers, a bakery and a pasticheria (the pastry store, yum!). It has been an adjustment to me to go to three or four stores when I shop instead of one, but I am growing to like it. I’ve realized that shopping at the local town stores is more of a social event than anything else.

All of the stores and businesses in downtown Vado have apartments above them, usually owned by the person who owns the shop. It truly is a small town atmosphere. The downtown area is about 2 square miles in diameter and contains no less than two soccer fields. Of course every town with a population of app. 2500 people needs two soccer fields, right? An example of where their priorities lie.

My habit from the US was always to go to one large store and get all my shopping done at once. When I first arrived I went to the two large stores, Carrefore and Esselunga, which are both about 20 minutes away. You can buy a bit of everything at these stores, but shopping at the big chain stores is (I found out) a bit of a cultural no-no. There is an attitude of “these are our neighbors who own these small stores, and why do you want to put them out of business?"

There is a law in Italy that deals specifically with retail stores and placement. If a florist exists in a small town, another florist is not allowed to open in the same town. Licenses are given out for businesses based on need with the market kept in mind.

Consider this quote I recently read online: “Our country (USA) has six times more retail space per capita than any other county," said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Georgia Institute of Technology. "We're just cannibalizing our existing stores by building more stores even when sales aren't increasing," she said. "We were long due for a retail correction and we're going through it now."

I could argue the philosophical merits of free-reign capitalism, but look at the current financial situation in the USA and I wonder if retail saturation is really necessary. Do we really need to have 100 different choices of toothpaste when we go to the store? In Clifton Park, NY, there were 4 Dunkin Donuts within a space of 1 square mile. Are there enough consumers to warrant this kind of excess?

Like most people here, I've been following CNN International lately, and every day it seems that another country is giving their opinion on the bailout bill and the troubles on Wall Street. Its a big topic of conversation here, and I am often asked to explain how the credit system works in the USA. Here is what I've found out about how the credit system runs in Italy. There are no private credit card companies. Each person who has a bank account is offered a credit card by their bank with a limit based on how much they earn. If you do not have a job, or a bank account, you have no credit card. The banks are private, but every bank in the country is backed by the larger BancItalia.

I will blog again soon, I look forward to reading your comments!