Euro Trashed
My sister and I used to go on a shopping trip to Italy every January, during the sales — a whirlwind tour of Milan, Florence and Rome that involved molto money, not-so-molto museums. (Not that we’re complete philistines, but who has time to mix business with culture!)
Around this time of year, we’d start planning our trip with military precision, since we’d usually just have four days to hit the Golden Triangle of shops in Milan, the outlets in nearby Switzerland, the Prada outlet in Tuscany, the Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Prada boutiques on Via Tornabuoni in Florence and the Missoni store in Rome. And of course we would have to schedule our travel time around Sundays, when only outlets would be open. Despite the fact that we did it year after year, each time it would still be a tactical challenge. (Lord knows lugging our suitcases on and off the Trenitalia was akin to going to bootcamp.)
When we first started going, we were still dividing prices by 1900 to convert from lire (yet another challenge). But soon enough, we were feeling flush when we got our brand spanking new Euro notes out of the ATM at the airport: 85 cents to the Euro. Oh, those were the days… of $80 Prada shoes, $120 Missoni (and we’re talking orange label) sweaters, $75 Gucci sunglasses… Now, several years into a slumping dollar, where has the fun gone?
It bums me out that we’ve cancelled our trip the last couple of years. Sure, the dollar has gotten a slight bump on recent weeks, but even with that we’d probably be paying the same prices we would pay here during the sales. Though at Last Call I guess it would just be a much lovelier experience if the merch came with a side of fresh pasta!
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