Italy’s association of consumers has announced that they’ve had it with the rising cost of pasta. In grocery stores, dried pasta prices are some 25% higher than in the past year, an increase that provoked the planning of a “sciopero della pasta” or pasta strike.
Thus, on Thursday September 13th, pizza will be in and pasta will be out as Italians just say no to spaghetti, fusilli, fettuccini, and the myriad of other pasta shapes that line the supermarket shelves.
Going for 24-hours without pasta will be difficult for many, so volunteers from consumer groups will be handing out free bread and milk in piazzas throughout the country - including Piazza Montecitorio and Piazza Verdi in Rome.
Though pasta is taking the hit on September 13th, it’s not just pasta prices that are squeezing Italian budgets, however. Consumer groups are also upset about hikes in the prices of electricity, gas, railway tickets, bread, milk, olive oil, school books, benzine, bank services, and insurance.
(Image notes: spaghetti models shown above appeared in a Moschino window in Rome in 2000. photo by Susan Sanders)
