amireally

Visiting Tuscany in the heat of the summer..we'll be visiting such gastronomic wonders as Bologna, Parma etc...how does one keep their purchases (cheese, coldcuts etc.) "cool" in the heat of the car?? Here in U.S. it's pretty easy to walk into any corner store and get a styrofoam cooler and ice..what about there?

Curt

Don't know about styrofoam coolers in Italy, never tried to buy one. What we use for our travels when going by car (as we tend to do mostly), we pack a fold up soft sided ice chest. These can be found at sporting goods stores and they fold up really flat and take up only a small amount of space. They are insulated and will keep a small quanity of food/cheese etc cool. <BR> <BR>The other problem you will encounter is just finding the ice. Unlike in US, the ice machine in the hotel does not exist. However, the insulation of the little fold up cooler will help keep things somewhat fresh. <BR> <BR>Have fun

cyndi

we will also be travelling to Tuscany and have a kitchen in our apartment. we often take small soft-sided cooler but it wouldn't hold stuff for the apartment fridge...I'd also be interested in suggestions on this question

Claudia

We actually bought a cooler while we were there; the big Co-op supermarket had plastic coolers for about $15.00. The cooler kept things right for picnics if the food and drinks had spent the night in the fridge. We also supplemented with ziploc bags filled with ice cubes; we may even have brought over one of those gel-filled sleeves for chilling wine bottles (we went in 1998). When it was time to leave, we left the cooler behind for future tenants. <BR> <BR>(P.S.: I don't think you're anal....)

peter

for dryed salami no refrigeration is necessary for whole ones. are you just transporting these items from the salumeria to a picnic spot(dont worry about it then( or back to an appt. ice hard to come by anywhere. could bring the artificial ice container and freeze it then into a sealed bag/