American grocery products more common now in Italian stores

Some products that were difficult or impossible to find in
Italy 15 years ago.

When we first lived in Italy in 2001, many familiar products were unavailable or extremely difficult to find in grocery stores. We knew a family at the American military base who would buy us things like Bisquick, Cheerios (the kind without honey), chocolate chips, oatmeal, maple syrup, coconut flakes and peanut butter. Gradually, some of these harder to buy items started showing up at the larger grocery stores. Last year was the first time I found pancake mix (it wasn’t Bisquick, but just as good if not better). This year, we have found actual bacon and chocolate chip cookie mix, and yesterday, I finally saw chocolate chips for the first time.

Of course, there are so many good foods here that we can’t find in America, so I’m not asking for sympathy, just making observations. It is nice to have some familiar favorites in our diet now and then. It makes living in Italy even more simple and pleasurable. So if any executives from EsseLunga, Conad, Iper, Coop or Despar are reading this, thanks. And we’re still waiting for the rest of the ingredients for making magic cookie bars, including graham crackers, condensed sweetened milk and those sweetened coconut flakes.