My neighborhood grocery store, and a common chain in this area is called the Coop. I have lived abroad before, so I knew grocery shopping with food allergies in Italy was going to be an event in itself. My first trip to the grocery store, I had no idea what to expect! I was just hoping I wouldn’t spend hours in the store reading every single ingredient. I brought my Italian/English dictionary with me the first few trips. It did take a while to figure out what was okay that was packaged. The labels and warnings on food are different here than in the U.S.
My neighborhood grocery store.
For the first month or so, I stuck to very basic foods. I bought mostly fresh foods, so I was going to the store a few times a week. Now that I have been here for a while and know the Italian ingredients, it takes me much less time to find foods that I haven’t tried and that should be safe to eat. I still have yet to find any candy or ice cream that is safe here though. My poor sweet tooth! ;)