Day 2-2-2

I mentioned that were going to the department store to buy some clothes after my luggage disappeared enroute from Berlin.  There are some interesting highlights here.  First, I wanted to shop at Coin at Termini because it's possibly the only all-in- one department store in Rome (and is advertised as a "new kind of shopping")  Most Italian clothes stores are highly specialized, with shoes, shirts, formalwear, etc all being sold in different places.  Since I need everything and am tired of my one pair of pants, one shirt and one pair of underwear, I'm ready to spruce it up. I got it done but not without surprises.  Sticker shock was the first educational point:  Shirts are around 60 Euro, although I dug around to find a couple that were only 25.  Shorts are around 40-60 Euro per pair.  Even even underwear is expensive with a reasonable price being 25 Euro for a 3-pack.  No wonder Europeans avoid owning a lot of clothes.  Second surprise was the size chart:  Turns out I'm a plus size in continental measurements--XXL in shirts, size 50 in pants!  Wading through piles of clothes to find the biggest sized items gave me a sense of what life must be like for some of my more expanded countrymen at home.  I think I'll tack these clothes to the basement wall above the stairmaster when I get home as a reminder of what could be!