Some of you know me from slowtalk as I don't post too much here.We will becoming to Europe for 2 1/2 years and leaving the first of September.We will mostly be traveling all over Europe by RV ,(not just Italy).I did live in Italy for a year when I was young and remember being homesick.I am hoping it will be better now because I am coming with my whole family ( husband and 5yo child) but I want to do what ever I can to help with any issues in that area.I know it comes with the territory in some ways,but looking to lesson it.

I am beginning to wonder about what to bring that will be hard to find there? I have heard dental floss ,tylenol,mexican food and peanut butter are some of the biggies.Is there a list here of things to bring for a long stay?

We will be wintering in Spain ( because 2 out of 3 of us speak the language)so somethings may be different there than Italy.But I am thinking some things will be similar thruout Europe.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance!

Dental floss is not hard to find. It's in the farmacia. Ibuprofen is here, just expensive. Corn tortillas are nonexistent, but other stuff you can get. NO CHEDDAR CHEESE. There is Calve peanut butter that I like very well, but some miss the sugar in Jif.
From what I hear from Italians, Italy is more expensive than Spain.
Ziplock bags are sometimes findable, but not easy like the US. Vanilla extract, but will you bake in your RV? Then baking powder as well.

Thanks Judith ,I am just trying to get an idea of what to bring that I might miss there.I suppose I could throw in a few corn & flour totillas to throw in the RV freezer.( I am sure will not hold too many.) Can they be that hard to make? I wonder if there is a recipe online somewhere? Maybe I will see from Mexican friends. I think we will bring a few mexican spices as we would miss Mexican food ( as most Californians would)once in a while.

I don't know too much about what will be available as far as oven ( or much else in the RV)...probably not much in the kitchen department due to size.But we will be in a 4bd rental from Nov 1 thru April 1st in Spain.

I don't do much baking here,but perhaps I would do some there,especially if we want to make something we are missing.

Do they have health food stores there?We almost never go into regular foodstores here like safeway or nobhill,but do all our shopping at health food stores and farmers markets and try to eat organic and healthy. We use a ton of Braggs ( its kind of like soy sauce but good for you) and I wonder if I will find that in Europe??? We don't eat much peanut butter,but we do eat quite a bit of organic almond butter.Do they have that?

I should not eat dairy so don't ,but I can eat sheep and goat cheese which I assume will be more plentiful there. Do they have goat milk yogurt like they do here?

We are even bringing some seeds like organic lettuce to grow on our terrace ( or even in RV if necessary)to have fresh produce as I hear its hard to find sometimes there.( Maybe not as bad in Italy as it is in parts of Spain ...altho it seems so strange as we will be in a rural ,farming area).

We were trying to just have carry on ,but I think we will need to bring a duffle to check for her car seat vest,so might as well gather up what ever other things that we will miss while we are at it.

Should I bring nuts from trader joes and things like that?

Thanks for any ideas of what to bring that is not available there,hard to find ,or much more expensive.

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Originally posted by WT:
Thanks Judith ,I am just trying to get an idea of what to bring that I might miss there. [...]

There are a lot of healthfood stores here in Rome but probably not so many out in the country (like everywhere). Here I buy things at the HF store like bulgur wheat, oatmeal, honey etc (actually the one I go to is macrobiotic).

I've never seen almond butter here and the only soy sauce I've seen I saw at the Chinese supermarkets here.

I think generally you'll find that you need to adapt a bit and just eat what the locals eat -especially away from the main cities. So - you may not find this healthy soy sauce you mention - but maybe you could just use normal soy sauce from the Chinese markets you find in big cities? I've also never seen goats milk yoghurt (in fact it's even hard to find unsweetened yoghurt in supermarkets here at all - even made with cows milk) but there's lots of sheep and goats' milk cheese to choose from (pecorino in all its varieties for example and I buy lots of yummy feta cheese from Greece which I think is made with goats milk). And there are lots of dishes which include no dairy - so you'll be fine. You can even get pizza without cheese (rosso) in most pizzerie.

Also - I don't think getting fresh fruit and veg is a problem anywhere in Italy (or in Spain for that matter!)

Cut excessive quotation only. A.T.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AliceTwain,

I have seen goat milk yogurt at the Ipercoop/Collestrada. Soy milk, soy burgers, almond milk are also there - and goat milk in the boxes.

I find it difficult to find an assortment of good herb/vitamin/supplements. Yes, you can find some but if you like a specific brand or a high dosage..bring them with you.

You can find corn tortillas (Uncle Ben brand) at Ipercoop too along with canned refried beans, salsa, Chinese food mixes,coconut milk in boxes, etc.

For a quick Mexican-like fix, I buy the bags of white tortilla chips, grate a sharp pecorino over them, sliced hot peppers-zap in microwave and serve with a homemade guacomole.

I agree that it is really much easier to adapt to what is here - the vegetables and fruits are great, fresh herbs are sold in the stores, fresh eggs from a farmer, great breads and cheeses.

Saying that, I have my friends and family bring Mrs. Butterworths pancake syrup (I've never used any of it but it is reassuring to have it in my cupboard if I ever need comfort food), McCormicks Vanilla, regular powdered sugar, minature marshmallows, baking powder, Karo Syrup,C & H brown sugar, Ziplock bags (especially the 2 gallon size), canned pumpkin and condensed milk for the Thanksgiving pies, cardamon and dried corriander.

If you take any vitamins or supplements or there are any OTC medicines you use a lot of, bring enough for your stay as they are expensive here and don't take up much room in baggage. Evening primrose oil is hard to find, folic acid is expensive, and I have found it hard to get migraine tablets.

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Saying that, I have my friends and family bring Mrs. Butterworths pancake syrup (I've never used any of it but it is reassuring to have it in my cupboard if I ever need comfort food), McCormicks Vanilla, regular powdered sugar, minature marshmallows, baking powder, Karo Syrup,C & H brown sugar, Ziplock bags (especially the 2 gallon size), canned pumpkin and condensed milk for the Thanksgiving pies, cardamon and dried corriander

Thats perfect and the kinds of things I am thinking about that I can bring along.Yes I do agree wholeheartedly with adapting to what is available locally and infact that will be a real joy in Italy. We eat pretty simply when we cook for ourselves ,so that should be pretty easy to do anywhere.

I am just trying to get a good list going of things to take like you just mentioned (my child will love having the marshmallows and we would all miss those pumpkin pies).

I think I will throw in a few big bottles of braggs liguid aminos.Sure we can use soy sauce in a pinch ,but we love pasta with just a little Braggs plus some olive oil & its healthier and better flavor.A few big bottles will last our whole trip.

How about bandaids and things like that? Someone said to buy them here as they are more expensive there and 5yo girls do love to waste their band aids.

We will be doing lots of moving thru lots of countries ,so I am looking for things that will help with the reassurance of a little comfort from home when we get on overwhelm.We WANT all the culture shock,change and differences...but sometimes we will want to cocoon away from it all for just a bit probably to rejuvenate ourselves for more.

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Evening primrose oil is hard to find, folic acid is expensive, and I have found it hard to get migraine tablets.

Again ,this kind of thing is very helpful for the kind of list I am trying to make.Thanks!

I have actually found essential oils and holistic remedies easier to find here than in the US. You need to know the Latin name for the plant. We have a farmacia that has conventional medicines and holistic medicines, plus several erboristerie. Folic acid is very expensive, up to €1 per pill.
When my Canadian friend weas touring and got a migraine, we went to the farmacia and she told them what she takes at home and they sold her enough pills to treat herself until she got home. This is, one hopes, something you wouldn't need much of.
Most Italian food is made simply of natural ingredients. It's pretty healthy. You can buy bio fruits and vegetables and eggs and pasta and bread. You really shouldn't need a lot of adjunctive stuff, especially if you look out a macrobiotic restaurant that makes breads and sells special ingredients. Ours sells bread on Thursday. There are a lot of celiac sufferers in Italy, so loads of products without gluten have arisen. In season you will find farmers bringing their produce into the market, whereas all year round products from other regions are sold.
Pumpkin pie is easy to make here, but maybe bring the spice because you may not want to buy all the separate bottles here, but you can. There are marshmallows, but they are colored. I haven't a clue what Braggs is, but I am in a severe doubt territory that it is tastier than all of the 100s of different pasta preparations in Italy!
I feel sorry that you will miss out on so many of the wonderful cheeses here, especially the various forms of bufala cheeses, but loads of sheep cheeses and some goat cheeses are dead common. Look for pecora or some form of it, even the ricotta is tastier than cow ricotta. Capra usually indicates goat, but capretto is cow. ???
I have never noticed bandaids being pricey. Are they?
Overall, if you cook like, say, Alice cooks, you should eat very well without turning your life upside down and without carrying a lot of stuff along. Look at the Italian soccer team... reared on this stuff and gorgeous for it.

I think in many ways Italy is great for people who can't eat dairy because there are so many great goat and sheep cheeses, and buffalo mozzarella (not sure if you can eat this if you are truly allergic) is easy to get and cheap as chips compared to overseas.

It is easy to find lavendar oil, clove, and some basics...but if you are into anything more-bring it with you: i.e. black walnut, cohash, pennyroyal,rose, etc. I use oils in my healing work and aromotherapy so do find that the ones I would like are often not available here-especially in the quality I would normally use.

Bandaids would be good to bring - especially if you can buy the large quanity from Costco or Pricesavers warehouse. A box of 20 varied sizes cost me over 8 Euro at the pharmacy - a bit cheaper at the Ipercoop but still well over the price from one of the warehouse stores.

I haven't had ocassion to look - so am not familiar if the pharmacies sell child bandaids (the ones with fun cartoons or designs).

You won't be able to find ranch dressing or good ketchup (i'm a heinz only kind of girl...) in Italy or I haven't been able to!

Where in Spain will you be? Depending on where you are will depend on the food you'll have...I lived there for a while so I can give you some helpful hints at least in Andalucia....There used to be a great "expat" store in a remote back corner of a street in Sevilla....

I am not worried about the food in Italy as I am well aware how wonderful it is since I lived in Milano for a year and traveled & many places there. Just looking for a list of things to bring that can save me some money or that is hard to find there or in Europe in general.I won't be in Italy my entire 2.5 years ( as tempting as that might be )but we will be traveling thru all of Europe in a slow way.We will be spending a good amount of time in Italy because its such a great place,but many others as well,so our story is a little different than most here.

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Where in Spain will you be?

We will be spending the winter ( Nov 1st to April 1st) in a wonderful winter home ( 4bdr so we will have some space for those months ! yea ) in Frigiliana a gorgeous 16th century white village 6km from the lovely town and La Jolla-like beaches of Nerja ( about an hour north of Malaga,near the coast).I know also that we will be about 15 minutes drive from a big mall.I have never been to Spain ,so I just picked it off the internet because of its beauty and meeting our needs for an authentic,rural area that was not too far away from beach or Spains 3rd largest city Malaga for any needs we might have.My child is registered in the local school and it will be our home away from home during the winter months because it is one of the warm spots in Europe in winter similar to our winter weather here in Ca and we all speak Spanish ( they are fluent and I talk babytalk )We will head off to Italy on April 1 ( and then onto Greece & turkey....then to croatia and exploring eastern Europe as we have not been, as well as short trips into Egypt & Russia via plane)...slowly moving as we feel like it and planning the details as we go.

I have been amazed at some of what I have heard about the food ,like them not having much fresh veggies and the food being VERY greasy in Andalucia.My childs Spanish tutor here ( preparing her for the school) has a daughter who just got back after a semester of study in Cordoba and said they have no peanut butter and no fresh veggies.We could care less about the peanut butter,but the lack of veggies does seem so odd.We will be smack in the middle of a farm area ,so that seems hard to believe.

Good to know about ranch and ketchup as those are favs with my child.Do they have mac and cheese? Thats my childs favorite.We will be doing much of our own cooking and I have plenty of room to carry food in my check in bags if they allow it.( We were not going to put anything in check in ,but have to for her seat vest now,so that leaves plenty of room for anything we might miss while we are gone.We do have a costco here and my mom is a member,so we can pick up things in bulk at a good price and are planning to do that with batteries,dental floss,dvd things for the video camera etc.I might even do 2 big duffles since we have to do checkin ,so have plenty of room.All ideas are welcomed and appreciated.We have our clothes down to one carryon each & dd has all her toys in one small carry on backpack.We have sent our books and winter jackets/sweaters ahead & another box of books is going to Spain soon.By the time we take off for our spring and summer tour of Europe via RV ,we hope to be a well oiled team as we will do lots of exploring while at our winter base.

I hear there is a ToysRus near Malaga airport which will please my daughter.Are they the same in Europe as they are in the states.

Although it would appear that you will not be seeking residence here and therefore looking to gain a Libretto Sanitarie (or the latest Carta Sanitarie) with ASL.

It may be worth knowing for some people that 'celiac' sufferers listed with SSN are entitled to €100 per month of celiac products from their chemist. This I understand is obtained upon a relevant prescription from the GP.

Carole B

We have a page on the main site that has "what to bring" http://www.expatsinitaly.com/before/bring.htm

Keep the ideas coming here too and I will add them to the list.

WT,

The food in andalucia is different than we're used to at home in the US...its not comparable to Mexican food or anything else. There are lots of fried foods (Almost always its fish) but there are plenty of other wonderful foods that aren't going to kill you! I lived with a spanish family and we had plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. If you are living at home and cooking for yourself, you won't have a problem--if you eat out every meal, like anywhere else in the universe, you'll pack on a few pounds! I didn't see mac & cheese when I was in Spain, but I didn't go and look for it either. I enjoyed the spanish food too much!

Malaga has wonderful beaches and was a fun place...I'm not familiar with the town you'll be in, but be sure to go and visit cordoba and sevilla. These are two of my favorite cities in the world

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We have a page on the main site that has "what to bring" http://www.expatsinitaly.com/before/bring.htm

Oh,thats a great page! ( And this is a great site!) Thanks Christina .Some how I missed it.

And thanks Homesick in Faenza.

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be sure to go and visit cordoba and sevilla

We definately will & we are looking to explore all of Spain quite thoroughly.

And CarolB

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Although it would appear that you will not be seeking residence here

We will be applying for residence in Spain ( because we are using it as a base for our European leg since 2 of us are fluent in Spanish and its a good opportunity for my child to learn the culture and language of some of her ancestors)but won't settle anywhere in Europe ( or anywhere) til we finish our slow world tour.We are keeping Spain ,Italy( and possibly France or somewhere else) as an open possiblility for a second residence to live half the year in.We know this trip will change us , so we have lots of openess as to where we will want to settle down when we are ready for that.The slow travel allows us the opportunity to lean into the multitude of possiblilities.I can not imagine us wanting to put deep roots down anywhere at this time,now that we have uprooted ours to be so fancy free. But we will definately have our eyes out for that sweet spot ( which very well could end up back herein coastal northern Cal. as its an area we love as well as having family close by).

Thank you soooo much for the tip to bring canned pumpkin and condensed milk for pumpkin pies!!!!!

I'll be in Italy for six months, and while I couldn't be more excited, I haven't spent a single Thanksgiving or Christmas away from my family ever (and I'm 27) so a good american pumpkin pie might help with the homesickness I know I'll have for my family on those days