Shopping in Rome

The metal door over a shop that's closed for the day.
Someone clearly had a lot of time to graffiti all
over the lovely door.

Shopping is different in Italy in several ways. The shops are pretty small by American standards and you won't find any huge department stores like Target or Walmart here. The shops usually have a metal garage-type door that comes down when the store is closed. This makes it pretty easy to see when a store is closed, but it can be inconvenient if you want to know the store's hours and they are posted on the entrance door that you can no longer see. Because most shops only have the small entrance door, there usually aren't window displays for shops. Instead, you have to peek in through the door to figure out what's inside if you can't tell by the shop name.

The basket-cart things at the grocery stores. It's
 nice because it can be carried and also pulled.

Grocery shopping is also different than in the United States. There is a grocery store one block away from our apartment and it is tiny compared to the Coborn's in my hometown. The one closest to us happens to have a lower level for more space, but the other ones I've been in didn't have another level. The baskets/carts are combined into one compact basket-cart. They're handy because they can be pulled or carried. At the grocery stores, whenever something is priced by weight, the customer needs to weigh the item before going to checkout. Most produce is priced this way and I even saw the same style of shopping with bread. You take the food, for instance, I bought a head of lettuce today, and you put it on the scale. Then you press the item number, mine was 23, and a sticker prints out with a barcode and price tag that you stick onto the produce for the cashier to ring up. Also, at grocery stores you are usually are expected to bring your own bag to carry your groceries in; otherwise you are charged for the plastic bags they have at the store. The store closest to our apartment charges eight centimes (essentially ten cents) for a bag. The grocery store nearest to the apartment doesn't have a lot of processed food. There's a lot of fresh ingredients that you can buy, and the frozen food section is very small.

We see a lot of dogs everyday. The grocery store has hooks outside
 for people to leave their dogs while they shop.