My friend recently taught me that you don;t have to know Italian to haggle over prices in Rome. <BR> <BR>When he found something he wanted at a street vendor and was told the price was 40,000 lire, about $20, he offered 20,000 lire in the form of three 5,000 lire bills and five 1,000 lire bills. He had a plan. <BR> <BR>The vendor shook his head, acting as if my friend were crazy, and my friend simply shrugged as if he couldn't care less. Then he took one 1,000 lire bill away from the money in his hand and offered the 19,000 lire. <BR> <BR>The vendor immediately understood that now my friend was offering LESS and immediately agreed to the 19,000 lire price! It was a great move!

celeste-all you need are these italian words-cuando costa? keep saying no and he'll keep lowering the price--it happened to us in florence and i kept saying the word over and over until someone who spoke english and italian said-lady,he come down about 6 times and the price a great-he told me the price in english and it was incredible so i purchased it immediately---in fact, if you go to florence--which you must, the outdoor markets near the Ponte Vecchio bridge are great. you can get Louis Viutton handbags that literally fell of the truck for about $80 USD by haggling. if you do get to Florence and want fabulous jewelry at great prices go to the Ponte Vecchio to a store called A.Rosalti. They have the best preices. give them you ax card and tell them you will send a check when you get back to the states. they lower the price much lower than for ax,but they keep a copy of your charge card in case you don't send them a check.....very dependable and i have purchased from them for years---very honest. in fact,if you are buying jewelry in florence, youonly want to buy from s store that displays the fleur de lis symbol...the italian gov't makes sure they are honorable and legit!! hope this helps---andy

Those Louis Vuitton (and Gucci) bags have been falling off the truck, along with the turnips, for years and years, wherever there are tourists in Italy. Amazing forgeries. And they are just that.

Re: "Those Louis Vuitton (and Gucci) bags have been falling off the truck, along with the turnips, for years and years..." <BR> <BR>*LOL*, good one Ed!

Lucky for me that I'm not interested in handbags or jewelry!

You can almost guarantee that anything sold in the streets is a fake. Even here in Sydney they sell fake designer sunglasses and a few years ago there were Chanel Tshirts doing the rounds. Chanel issued a statement about them at the time saying they don't even do Tshirts! I don't recall seeing any jewellery being sold in the streets - not gold, at any rate. The price of gold in Italy is so reasonable, even with a poor Aussie Dollar.

I managed to hanggle for scarves onthe streets of rome and florence. <BR> <BR>They were being sold everywhere by oriental men and women. I speak a little chinese but I think these people were vietnamese and since I hardly speak Italian it turned that we had to be a bit imaginative. <BR> <BR>But in both places, I just punched in my offer on the ladies' calculator and she punched in hers and so on. I found that I couldn't really haggle with the many italian vendors but it could be because I tried in many tourist areas. Didn't try very hard though cause I wasn't really looking for anything leather. <BR> <BR>Though in florence I managed to get a few thousand liras off thischess set. Didn't end up getting it because it was too big and we were backpacking ... but the guy kept bringing the price odwn and this was in a shop. <BR> <BR>Bronwyn.