In Italy it can cost $2 to cut a sandwich in half
Traveling on holiday in Italy can turn out to be priceless. Everyone has different likes and dislikes. It depends on how one looks at it. To many, it is a pleasant journey with heaps of eye-opening experiences. It can range from being frowned upon by law-abiding Italians when requesting a cappuccino in the afternoon or daring to request putting pineapple on a pizza, to seeing some amazing art and architecture.
Some people just don't like cities and venture off the beaten path to enjoy the beautiful countryside. However, like the gathering of wildlife at the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, the majority of international travelers follow the crowd, to the often, and sometimes over-visited cities, like Venice, Rome and Milan and others…especially in summer.
Talking of summer, it seems that the summer of 2023 can be labeled as the ‘priciest’ in history, following flood of price gouging outrage that tourists encountered at restaurants and cafes in Italy.
Everyone gets ripped off at one time or another while traveling and it happens in Italy just like everywhere else. But it appears that a pandemic of sorts where tourists are being ripped off when ordering food, drinks or even extra cutlery is on the rise over there.
Take the couple charged 2 Euros ($2.20) to cut their ham sandwich in half on the shores of Lake Como. The owner of the outlet justified it by saying that, supplementary requests come with a cost, as he had to use a second plate, which would have to be washed, place another napkin and that they served up the divided sandwich with an extra handful of crisps.
Then there was the case of the young mother in the Roman seaside town of Ostia who was charged 2 Euros to have her baby's bottle heated in the microwave. Not the type of warm hospitality one would expect.
A pair of tourists was charged 60 Euros ($65) for two coffees and two small bottles of water at the Cervo Hotel in Sardinia. The hotel owner justified it by saying that the prices were plainly listed and the charge is mostly for the view over the expensive yachts of the nearby port.
While millions of foreign tourists flock to Italy this summer, Italians too are feeling the pinch. An Italian couple had requested the extra teaspoon so that they could share the ‘crema catalana’ that they had ordered in the pizzeria near Alba, a town renowned for truffles, in the northern region of Piemonte. They were taken aback when the bill arrived with a Euro 1.50 surcharge for “due cucchiaini” or two teaspoons.
While it was not a large amount of money, it has added to a general sense among Italians that hoteliers, restaurateurs, and beach club owners are unreasonably hiking prices as they seek to make money from the post-pandemic rebound in tourism.
Source: External
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