Red wine from France, tea from England or olives from Spain – in the past, many holidaymakers had food from their holiday region with them when they returned. To take some holiday flavor home with you, to give friends something special or just to show off. It’s usually not worth it these days. Unless it’s rheumatism plasters made from monkey testicles, tiger bones or frozen songbirds – these are of course forbidden and will be confiscated by German customs – you’ll have a hard time finding something that isn’t listed in the well-stocked full-range store at home. And then there are also regular Greek, Asian or Alpine weeks in the discount stores.
A man from Sauerlach found that it can be worthwhile not only to fill the tank to the brim with petrol before heading north over the Brenner Pass, but also to fill the last gap in the trunk with purchases in Italy. He compared pasta prices and discovered a significant difference: Spaghettini No. 3, semper al dente in five minutes, is available in a supermarket in Affi for 79 cents. According to the notice an “Offerta”. After his return from southern Lake Garda, he found the same 500-gram pack on the shelf in Sauerlach for 2.19 euros – apparently that was also an offer, because the price tag shows the amount as “cheap discount”. You don’t know how much the noodles cost there.
So it’s definitely worth turning around and driving back to Affi with an empty trunk. Despite the high fuel costs, this saves a few thousand euros. In a VW Passat, for example, which according to the manufacturer has a trunk volume of 650 liters, you could load 1065 packs of Barilla spaghetti, each measuring about seven by 3.2 by 27 centimeters. If you even fold down the rear seats, 2918 packs fit in. That’s at least 1459 kilos of pasta. So you would save depending on the 1491 to 4085.20 euros.
But who eats that much pasta anyway? Parents would say that every child felt within half a year. In fact, Germans only eat an average of 9.5 kilos of pasta a year. A truckload is enough to supply the 8,000 residents of Sauerlach for a whole week. A few families should therefore get together so that direct import is worthwhile. Otherwise the spaghettini will quickly get fed up with you.