Hi all,

Yesterday I had occasion to visit Athens, GA, a college town not far from my home.

I stopped in at one of the local coffee shops, where I had a 'medium' cardboard cup of brown liquid pumped from a thermos container.

This cost $1.66 (1.33E) which, considering its size, was about the same price as 2 espresso coffees in Florence, IT.

The coffee wasn't bad, as it was very early in the morning and had been brewed not too many hours before. However, it certainly wasn't comparable to what I had in Italy.

In addition, the coffee shop sold bagles for $1.50 (1.2E), croissants for $2.00 (1.6E), muffins, scones and pastries for $2.50 (2E). They were far inferior to the pastry (1E) and sandwiches (1.65E) that I had in Florence.

Despite the high price of the Euro, Italy is still relatively inexpensive.

Ira - very interesting perspective on the dollar:euro relationship. It's apparent your glass is half full!

Happy travels,
adrienne

Hey, ira, I spent two summers in Athens, Georgia. You left out the most important comparisons. How do the prices in Athens of the Krispy Kremes and the Krystal Hamburgers compare to Florence???

Hi Patrick,

You have, of course, hit on two of the three failings of Italy; the third being the Varsity hot dogs.

However, I can settle for gelato.

ira, what a great outlook on it! i always enjoy reading your posts - you are so incredibly helpful.

Thank you, Thon.

The perspective is interesting and valid, but inexpensive food is not a leading reason to go to Europe, and it wasn't even when a euro was 88 US cents.

High-calorie, low-cost fast food (setting appropriate nutrition aside for the moment) is an American hallmark. You can get all the calories you need for a whole day cheaply in America, almost more readily even than in a grocery store (well, not really). And even if you DO want to eat nutritiously, then American grocery stores can still feed a family of four WELL for under ten dollars. Harder to do in Europe.

It shows. On waistlines on both continents.

Best wishes,

Rex

>High-calorie, low-cost fast food (setting appropriate nutrition aside for the moment) is an American hallmark. <

Ummmmm, Rex,

I think my point was that it was better and *cheaper* in Italy.

Well, that's an interesting perspective, but most of us are more concerned about keeping the hotel room expenses down. How do those compare?

I came back from Firenze on 2/22. Regarding better buys, I got 70.20e for $100 in an EXCHANGE signed place, then later I got 75.00e for $100 in a small place (4ft sq) on the street between Vecchio and Uffizi. I bought 2 plates of strawberries for 1.35e on the 2nd flr of the central market, one plate for 1.35e to 2.50e in grocery stores; a bottled water for 0.50e in a store near the market, while 0.60e to 1.90e in other stores.

By the way, I climbed the duomo and the belltower; in Pisa, the leaning tower and baptistery. I could not do any climbing in Siena, Bologna, Milano.
The towers were closed because of snow/sleet/rain.

Well, my point was to disagree, ira

"Better" items may be cheaper in Europe in some instances

But many food and beverage items still are considerably (way too much?) cheaper here in the US.