Originally Posted by
JMN57
Before gas prices escalated in the US I used to say that gas and liquor tell you a lot about the difference between the US and Italy. In Italy, they tax the gas and not the booze while in the US we tax the booze and not the gas.
That said - I've been at my house in Italy all summer and sadly have to leave in the next few weeks (running out of days on my tourist visa). Bringing wine/liquor to Italy makes little sense with a few exceptions. Here, I get spina wine (from the tap/barrel) for €2-3 per liter at a local shop. Lots of good wines/prosecco to be had for €4-10 by the bottle at the grocery store - even cheaper if you go to value chains like Eurospin. Just ordered a bottle of Beefeater Gin from Amazon for €13.
I think you're right. I called Scotch out as an exception mostly because I've found good bottles to be harder to find in Italy and also kind of expensive. I didn't realize that amazon.it sold liquor though - and a lot of what I like is considerably cheaper there.
Originally Posted by
KLouis
The following has nothing to do with the decades-long north-south "debate" in Italy. Moreover, I do not offer any kind of enological expertise but, rather, a simply superficial piece of advice that may satisfy both the palate as well as the wallet of an average person, based on living in Italy for a few years (Rome and Perugia): As JMN57 indirectly suggested, wines of certain regions (e.g. Tuscany, Piemonte, Veneto, etc.) are usually much more expensive compared to wines of corresponding quality from other regions (e.g. Calabria, Puglia, Sicily, etc.). There are many reasons for this, and I don't want to expand here, suffice to say that if you intend to stay longer in Italy, try some of those Southern ones and you'll easily save up to 100 € and more monthly.
This is advice that everyone should listen to. Some Italian regions market themselves way better than others, and that includes their products. I love Tuscany in general, but the reason anyone romanticizes it the way they do is that they market to foreigners
really well. The South (for reasons) sucks at this, which is a shame, but it does result in a relative bargain on great wines if you dig a little. JMN57 hit this too, but vino sfuso is a good bargain to save on table wine too.