Look, seriously, in Mustair you'll be living in one of the more remote alpine areas of Switzerland. The next town that is not across a 7'000 ft mountain pass (and then some, i.e. Davos, Scuol, and ultimately Chur) is Mals (it: Malles Venosta), population 5'000 or so. There's a Supermarket there (DeSpar branded, but family-run), as well as bakeries. For anything bigger, you have to look at Meran/Merano or Bozen/Bolzano, a solid 70-90 min drive each way, longer if stuck behind a lorry.

That's not the retail environment that hard discount stores (Aldi, Lidl et al.) are looking for. As a result, the closest "hard discount" is a Hofer (AKA Aldi Austria) in Prutz, between Nauders and Landeck in the upper Inn valley. "Only" 70 mins drive over the Reschen Pass away, but then the Reschen is only 5'000 ft high...

Hi Tom, I don't know ANYTHING about Müstair... I've never been remotely near there at any point in my life. I don't know that they speak German in that area of Italy and I have never heard of Alto-Adige. I figured it would be best to ask some of you who may have been there before! Have I mentioned anywhere that there is a problem?!
PS... I have only been to Italy once in my life and the expierence was really not the best. It was in North Italy where they were supposed to speak German... I couldn't even order a still water with the 3 languages I DO know... so if I had any problem... it would be the fear of being unable to communicate assuming the locals can speak a specific language.

Well see, I didn't know THAT either I knew it was high up and kind of remote... but I don't know what's there or on the other side of the border in Italy... Hubby suggested we take a day trip there this weekend to check it out. He's been there pretty often and seems to have some idea of the area. I don't really mind if there aren't any discount stores or malls. I lived in a really remote area of the Odenwald in Germany and loved buying from the local bakery, deli, village stores, etc. Just good to sorta know what is there and what to expect. But seriously?!?! Is it really 5000-7000ft high over there?!?! OMG

speaking of Italy... somewhat off-topic... ( yes yes I know, again ! )

what are the plugs like?, mrs. and I will be in Florence for a week from sunday, so do I just need standard Swiss to EU adapters or do they have yet another system?

Grazie!

Another system, all three pins inline.

If your stuff is 2-pin, no problem usually.

Tom

That's what Sudtirol is called in Italian.

Tom

Then Mr Genius, if you did not clearly wrote that you were looking for supermarket NAMES, then why..........
...........
...........YOU DID NOT WROTE THAT CLEARLY IN THE FIRST POST?
(I nice to do a bit of UPPERCASE like you, even more visible!).

As far as I am concerned I replied properly to your initial question, and yet I get a groan- Mind you I collect them, so it's quite cool!


Yes let's try again, next time clearly indicate what you want. You never know people might actually understand you.

While Odenwald may seem "remote" compared to big urban areas like London, Paris or even Frankfurt, it is nowhere near as remote as Val Mustair. Population density in the Kreise (districts) in Odenwald is between 150 and 130 per sq.km, it's hilly and forested but not alpine. Val Mustair and most high alpine regions in the Grisons have a population density of under 10 per sq.km.

No, the mountains are a lot higher than that. 5'000-7'000 ft are the main road passes.

take an adapter, there are several kinds of plugs. in line, but two/three, big/small holes...
so different from switzerland but in unexpected ways

a basic adapter CH>EU from coop for about 4 CHF should help in most cases. otherwise try asking at the hotel, they usually have the ones for other european countries > italy.

Are you serious? You live in Chur, move to Müstair and don't know anything about the region? How about investing in day out and exploring the region? Or even more basic: use Google!

I was going to mention the German bit, but since a lot of supermarket stuff comes from Italian sources a bit of Italian can come in handy. There are quite a lot of small supermarkets of the Eurospar or Conad type in the villages near the border, but the nearest Lidl is in Schlanders/Silandro which is about 35km away from Müstair. I haven't seen it myself but a friend from Val Müstair told me there was one as well as other ok shopping places. You could try "Lidle filiali Italia" on google for more info.

I am a MRS genius... thank you

I guess you could have read further posts and seen that I wrote my hubby suggested we take a day trip there this weekend. I was mostly looking for comments and suggestions from people WHO LIVE THERE and have experience... I think communicating with real people is a bit more interesting and personal than looking up raw statistics. However, I did check out some satellite images on google maps and checked out of some of distances and checked rental prices on comparis. BTW how would using google help me learn about supermarkets in italy`(in English) better than the kind people here on the EF?
PS... I also mentioned in another post that hubby knows the southern region quite well... it's just me who hasn't got a clue. (BTW, we may not have a choice about moving to that region sooooo... i am trying to know something about it )

Ah, so it has opened? No more Hofer then!

I apologize if my question sounded a bit harsh, but I simply asumed that for somebody already living in the canton the first step would be to drive to the Münstertal and talk to people living there.
Val Müstair is one of the main tourist regions of Switzerland and you definitely won't have many problems in finding information in English.

I couln't quite believe it myself, but I did check it on google and so it could be true. It doesn't look like a moneymaking prospect to me, but I suppose it depends on how many miles people are prepared to drive. It makes me suspect that the other shops in the area are not that cheap.
As was mentioned earlier Val Müstair is pretty remote and the Vinschgau area in Italy is not really a major shopping area either.
Incidentally if you want to talk to some of the inhabitants, they have their own type of Romansch called Vallader.

Seeing this thread & the one by Tom_Tulpe. I'm wondering why are moving there and what will you be doing?? Just curiosity really, since it sounds extremely remote. Of course you are under no obligation to answer! I had no idea what that area is like and it sounds very different from the parts of Italy we tend to go to.