On 2008-01-15 03:33:43 +0000, (Steve Firth) said:

Andy Hall wrote:

[Spirits]

are hideously expensive

Spirits are approx 50% more than the UK.

That makes them hideously expensive in my book.

All relative - depends on your starting point. I used the UK as a
comparison point since it's a UK group.


The local shops in Italy
sell spirits (and indeed all alcohol) for a fraction of the UK price. A
bottle of single malt in the local supermarket is about 7 Euro.

I don't see binge drinkers outside the one city with an airport bringing
in trippers on cheap flights from the UK. In general it's notable that
the drunks in the street are all talking loudly in English. In cities
where the English don't go public inebriation is almost unknown.

Therein lies a clue.......