Shopping in Bagni di Lucca
Most shops open at around 8 to 8:30am. Close for lunch at 1pm and reopen between 4 and 4:30pm until somewhere between 7 and 8pm on Monday to Saturday. Shops do not open on Sundays or public holidays except where noted below.
Note that all food shops in the area are closed on Wednesday afternoons with the exception of the Coop in Fornoli. Many non-food shops do not open on Monday mornings.
Credit cards are now generally accepted in most places.
Banks operate hours similar to those of shops during the morning and may open for around a hour from 2:30pm or so. Cash machines are happy to give cash to foreigners. There are cash machines at the Banca di Toscana, Banca di Roma and the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca in La Villa
Buying food
Bagni Villa offers two supermarkets. Conad, between Viale Roma and the river, the largest and offering the most choice of products with a reasonable range of fresh produce, a butcher and a deli counter. It is open on Sunday mornings.
Punto SMA is smaller but also offers a good butchery area and deli counter and is generally quickest if you are in a hurry.
In Fornoli there is a branch of COOP, larger than Punto SMA but smaller than Conad and offering a smaller range of products.
You might like to note that supermarkets are generally very quiet during lunchtimes, most customers at this time will be foreign, and very busy in the early evening, especially Saturday evenings.
There is a street market in Bagni Villa on Wednesday and Saturday mornings with stalls selling fruit and vegetables, men's and woman's clothes, shoes, hardware and flowers. There is often fresh fish and, on Saturdays, a rosticceria van offering spit-roast chicken and other roast meats.
There is also a street market in Fornoli on Tuesday and Friday mornings offering similar products but with different traders.
A wide range of fruit and vegetables, including some more unusual varieties can be found at the Boutique della Frutta, opposite Bar Roma. The shop also has a range of wines and spirits and can make up Cestini (gift baskets) of preserved or fresh fruit, wines and spirits. These are a popular gift to take with you if you are staying with someone.
Bagni Villa offers a choice of butchers but no fresh fish shop, although there is generally fish available in Conad and Punto SMA. There is now a small specialist bakery in La Villa. Fresh bread is also available from all of the supermarkets but for the best choice it will generally be necessary to shop earlier rather than later. There is a bakery/bar on the far side of the river between La Villa and Ponte a Serraglio which produces excellent Italian and foreign breads and also a baker in Fornoli.
Wine in available from all of the supermarkets but for an interesting range of wines, including those from the Lucca area, try Vinoteca, next to the "Town Hall". In addition this also has a good range of other interesting drinks and drinking accessories such as corkscrews, coolers and home distillation equipment, presumably for the making of Grappa. It would probably be a little irresponsible to fail to point out that possession and/or use of a "still" is illegal in a large number of countries for reasons of both health and tax.
It is not unusual to find Bagni residents leaving the town to visit one of the local hypermarkets. These are E. Leclerc Conad (formerly Pianeta Conad), in Gallicano in the lower Garfagnana, an unmissably bright turquoise barn selling food, hardware, clothes and with excellent meat and fish, Esselunga, on the SS12 at Ponte a Moriano between Bagni di Lucca and Lucca and the excellent Carrefour, which sells most things, on the outskirts of Lucca and signposted from the SS12. All of these remain open during the afternoon and until 8 or 9pm on weekday evenings. E. Leclerc Conad, and sometimes Carrefour open for shorter hours on Sundays closing around 7pm.
Note that while the hypermarkets have a wider range of products this will not generally include many foreign foods. Should you have need such products as Marmite, British brands of tea, HP sauce or a particular brand of UK or US breakfast cereal you would be best advised to bring them with you.
Bookshops
Bagni di Lucca has a lamentable lack of bookshops, even for those who can read Italian. A small choice, mainly guide books, guides to local history and cookbooks, is available at the Tabacchi at 108, Viale Umberto I. Newsagents generally manage a small range of guidebooks.
Jacqueline's Internet point in Ponte a Serraglio offers a range of second-hand English paperbacks
Newsagents
These often open on Sunday mornings but not on the days following public holidays - when there are no newspapers. Note that these do not sell cigarettes or postage stamps. Bagni Villa has a newsagent in Piazza XI Zona Patrioti. This usually has a range of UK and US newspapers of varying ages. Ponte a Serraglio has a news-stand immediately adjacent to the bridge and there is another newsagent and toyshop in Fornoli.
For those desperate for foreign Sunday or indeed daily, papers the newsagent in Ponte all'Ania on the SS445 around five miles to the north of Fornoli usually has them in stock within two days of issue.
Hardware
Bagni Villa has two small hardware shops with a wide range of products. We've found that as English isn't really spoken in either of them and that as English-Italian dictionaries don't generally give a lot of help in this area it's often easier to drive to Brico Io, on the borders of Ponte All'Ania and Fornaci di Barga, the best local equivalent of a DIY superstore the area can offer, where you can browse, undisturbed, until you find what you need.
Other Services
Internet - Several local shops and bars have had half-hearted attempts at offering Internet access over the years. Reliable access arrived with Jacquline's Internet point at via Vittorio Emanuele, 66 in Ponte a Serraglio. The eponymous, charming, and English-speaking owner offers a small number of Internet-connected PCs as well as a wi-fi link for those who want to connect their own computers.
Film Processing: Bagni Villa has a photography shop, Foto Pastrengo in Viale Umberto I. which offers last turnaround film processing and digital printing. The shop sells cameras, offer photographic services, including passport photography, and has a window display of their work (fascinating if you have an interest in other people's wedding or first communion photos.)
Hairdressing: There are several hairdressers in town but Giovanna Del Basso, who offers Mens and Ladies hairdressing at her salon called Gio in Fornoli, (77, Via Papa Giovanni XX111 - closed Mondays.) was born in Australia and speaks good English. Its best to make an appointment on 0583 867815.
Property decoration and maintenance: Antony Pullinger (0583 867890) is an English painter and decorator living in the area.
Property sales and management services are available from the office of Toscana Verde, across from the war memorial in Ponte a Serraglio.
Our favourite shops
The Tabacchi at 108, Viale Umberto I offers an eclectic selection of items including books, stationery, novelty ashtrays, children's bubble mixture, fishing tackle, postcards and stamps, hunting supplies, gun parts, bright yellow descant recorders and sports shoes as well as tobacco products.
For those who can't stop buying shoes (Italians!) you can't do much better than Calzatura Daddo further down the same street. This is a vast and rambling shoe shop offering everything from carpet slippers and children's flip-flops (in the street) through fashionable men's and woman's shoes and handbags (all of the ground floor) to beautiful children's shoes and walking boots (upstairs). The staff are very friendly, helpful, extremely patient and very happy to let you browse.
For toys (or indeed electrical items) as the shop specialises in both, try the shop of Gino Ragghianti on the eastern part (not near the market square) of Via Contessa Casalini.