Just a quick moan. Just got in after attempting to do some grocery shopping. I say attempt because most food shops close on a Thursday afternoon so it's near impossible. I do know this, so you could say I shouldn't have even tried, but I was hoping I'd be lucky.
Why do they have to close on Thursday afternoon? Are they so over worked that they need to do that? Just the food shops close though, the other shops close on Monday morning until it gets hot then they close on a Saturday afternoon (because everyone goes to the beach) and open on a Monday morning. Are you following all of this? There'll be questions later.
Benvenuti/welcome!
A few tales and insights about my daily life and adventures in Naples. Enjoy! ... All words and photos Copyright© 'Delinissima' 2007-2008
9 comments:
Here all shops are typically closed on Monday morning. This is especially annoying because after everything being closed on Sunday, by Monday morning, there's usually something you need. I've asked a lot of times why this is so and have been told a lot of different things. Some people say it's because the shops need a morning to stock up at the warehouse. But then why is the library and hairdressers also closed on Monday mornings? Boh. I've never understood.
The Thursday afternoon thing sometimes trips me up because I still forget about it every so often. Here the shops are always closed Saturday afternoon and Monday mornings! And the pausa goes from 1:30-5:30! Shopping requires an awful lot of planning here. I guess that's just life in small town Italy.
OH man,I am still trying to get used to the whole 'hours of operation' system here!
I don't get the Thursday afternoon thing at all.
Michellanea, hairdressers in the U.S. are closed all day on Monday because they work Saturday (sun/mon) are their days off. Same with most libraries.
Michelle I forgot about the hairdressers closing too - shows how often I go there :) And there is no library here - well, not a library as I know it. I'm sure they do need to stock up, but haven't they heard of shifts of extra staff?
Kc, the shops where you are have a lot of time off!
Giulia, me too, every so often it still catches me out.
Nyc/Caribbean, I guess that with the hairdressers it's the day when fewer people go, so that's why they choose Monday as a day to close. Boh.
Another one I've just remembered is that you can't buy fish on one morning or day of the week. I can't remember which day it is, but I know it happens because I remember I just *had* to cook fish that day, so I found out the hard way.
here in Sicily it is random hours things close. Of course almost all the shops are closed during the lunch break (1pm to whenever they feel like reopening from 4 onwards) Lots of shops not open monday mornings, but other ones not open wed mornings. The supermarkets often closed on wednesday afternoons, and these are the ones that advertise being open 'all day' or 'sunday' (morning only but that's not on the sign!). Today (friday) i helped out some tourists who were standing outside a supermarket at 4.55pm wondering if it was going to open. The shop opposite reckoned they usually opened 'around 5ish'....
Not to mention in the summer when things close for a month or more. There is an icecream shop close to our house, and it closes all of June (at the beach!!!). That's because there is a primary school opposite so when that closes for the summer the shop keepers must reckon they deserve a break too..... Vanessa
PS isn;t there some sort of saying that catholics don't eat fish on fridays? or maybe that's meat....?
Here the shops close for lunch about 1:30 or 2pm, but when I was in Aquila I noticed that they closed at 1pm.
An ice cream shop at the beach which closes in June...I wonder which school of business they are following....
Actually good catholics are supposed to eat only fish on friday. When friday rolls around in my neighborhood I am about to keel over from all the fish smells!
As for the not buying fish day...maybe it's monday?
I know that the chef/traveler Anthony Bourdain says never to order fish at a restaurant on monday because it has been sitting around a few days.
Everything closes on Monday mornings here too! Unless you want Zara. Wednesday is our weird day for closing in the afternoon. But Florence has it's own quirks and a lot of the butchers and fish shops only open mornings all week!
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