I recently visited Italy and was shocked at just how much cheaper it was for everything. Wasn’t Europe supposed to be facing massive inflation due to extremely

I recently visited Italy and was shocked at just how much cheaper it was for everything. Wasn’t Europe supposed to be facing massive inflation due to extremely high energy prices? Sure, the cost of gas was high. And yeah, the dollar is extremely strong (although a strong dollar should have made things cheaper in the US with net imports), but even using a dollar/Euro conversion rate at its historical peak (about 1.6 dollars to the Euro), had things way cheaper. Eating at the finest fine dining restaurant in Milan was as expensive as a sit down meal at a regular restaurant in the US. And that’s before adjusting for the fact that the US sticker prices did not include tax and you needed to pay 20% tip. I’ve been to Italy before and while it was never expensive, this was the first time I felt it was cheap. The U.S. feels poor. Italy feels so much more advanced. Despite the fact that the latter has a fraction of the per capita income of the former.