Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Shopping in Termini




Shopping in Termini is an adventure. In America you just drive to the mall or Wal-mart or Target, here you walk to the stores, even if you have a car because parking can be very limited. I had the opportunity to go shopping with the pastor's wife yesterday. We were walking from Termini alta to Termini bassa (upper to lower). We went to several clothing stores, shoe stores, grocery, discount grocery, and several housewares stores. We walked for over 3 hours, but because we kept stopping it didn't seem nearly as long.

There are also some unusual things that you don't usually see in most cities stateside. There are fish vendors with little trucks on the street corners most mornings. The one we passed had regular fish as well as 2 octopuses, which I found out later is a delicacy around here. You also wish people you pass a good morning "Buon Giorno" whether you know them or not. There are also the older men that sit around in the piazza's, park areas of town, and discuss everything from politics to soccer. Termini, and much of Italy is a mix of both ancient and modern. There are buildings that are hundreds of years old with a satilite dish attached. You will see a modern building seamlessly attached to a building that was built in the 1700's. It has a beauty and simplicity and values the ancient, rather than tearing it down, but incorporating it into the modern architecture.

Suffice it to say, you see much more walking than you do riding around in the car.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Your experience about shopping in Termini is right!

I was born in Termini, but now live in Milan, I'm 34, my name's Vincenzo, and sometimes I'll be back there because my parents lives in Termini.

In 2000, I was in USA, New England zone (Connecticut, exactly), and my experience about shopping is very funny: there are many mall or superstore, you go there with your car and have fun! You can buy everything you want or you need.

In big cities of Italy, like Milan, Rome and so on, there's a similar situation like american's mall ("centro commerciale").

In small cities like Termini, there aren't mall, of more exactly you can found little mall. It's more easy yoy found little store, where the human interaction is needed :)

However, enjoy your stay, and sorry me for my poor english!

God bless you.