The Pitfalls & Joys of Grocery Shopping In Italy

In need of a packet of pasta for dinner the evening, one could walk into the local supermarket in Australia and select from what appears to be a wide range of pasta, head over the fresh food section, bag up some eggplants, tomatoes and zucchini then over to the self-checkout; done! Easy.

Indiana Jones in his Raiders of the Lost Ark was in search for the Holy Grail, a mythical place for the resting place of the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Holy Grail for Italians is the perfect tomato, the best pecorino, or that most prized prosciutto.

Indie needed to decipher cryptic codes, brave ancient temples, meddle with mischievous monkeys and confront sword wielding masters, but somehow this seems quite easy in comparison to navigating a Roman food shopping experience. Here you need to accept abuse from market attendees, grasp the finest tomato before the nonna next to you does, and working out which one is juicier, riper and has that scent of tomatoes of another epoch, whilst nudging this nonna out of the way to grab it first.

The aisles that Indie needed to navigate by avoiding spikes, rolling boulders and slivering snakes, are comparable to trolley aisle negotiation, holding your place in the cheese line; what line? There is no line! In the towns' outdoor markets, should you shop al fresco, haggling with the passionate vendors to buy the tomato you want, not the one they want to sell you.

Indie required great skill to solve puzzles and ancient maps, a skill that would serve you well in understanding the complex system of the self-weighing system in the supermarket, pressing the right buttons and printing the correct price labels for each item, all while that same nonna is behind you huffing impatiently at the 'L plater' in front of her.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indie needed a mix of strategy, quick thinking and a touch of luck, much like what is required when you want 100g of prosciutto, but which leg, which pig and which part of Italy would you like that from? And then that pasta; from which of the two and half aisles worth of pasta will you find the desired 'chalice' (that's assuming you're after dried pasta, not fresh, which is in another section altogether)?

Will your shopping adventure be akin to the quest for ancient treasure?