Those of you who will be around Parma, Milan, Bologna or even Florence, or other places of Lombardy, Tuscany or Emilia Romagna regions of Italy, may be thinking to taking a trip to Fidenza Outlet Village which is sort of in between those famous places, yet quite difficult to reach without own means of transport. Difficult is not impossible, but this will be time consuming, meaning your travel will be a day journey, meaning preventing you from visiting the beautiful touristy sites that those regions offer.

If you are a shopping addict enough to trade the cultural side of your trip for a day of shopping, in case you are in Florence area or rent a car, I would suggest you taking a trip to “The Mall” in the Tuscany region, instead. In case you are in Milan area, don’t bother and check Milan outlets instead (see my earlier posts on Milan shopping). If you are in Emilia Romagna and have no car, then Fidenza Outlet Village is perhaps the only place for some designer outlet shopping within reasonable reach.

I went to Fidenza Outlet Village when on my trip to Bologna, I woke up to a really bad weather. That was just an excuse to myself I needed: I had a quick breakfast and went to Bologna train station, to take a train to Fidenza. I read there will be a shuttle bus from the train station to the outlet village, so that was my plan to reach the place, as I had no car. It got slightly challenging to find that shuttle bus once in the train station- no signs of the shuttle upon arrival. I had to ask several people and finally got there (in simple terms; once exiting the station, go to the left side; and then on right there will be a sort of bus stop. One of the buses will be to the Outlet. I took some visuals to help finding it.

The shuttle takes you via some curvy and rather unimpressive countryside roads to the outlet village, and finally, lets you out at the entrance of it. Note down the hours for return journey.

The village itself was semi empty when I visited it, during low tourism season. It was clean and similar to other outlet villages around Europe (not surprisingly as they are part of the Chic Outlet Villages group, which owns similar places in Spain, etc). I started with stopping by at Information desk, asking for 10% discount card upon subscription.

The selection of brands in the village are pretty good: Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Marni, Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood, Zadig & Voltaire, Etro, Missoni, Fratelli Rossetti, Dolce&Gabbana, Belstaff, etc. The prices very disappointing though.  OK, cheaper than original retail price, but not more than what can be found in the same stores on high street at the end of the season, during sales. Given that collections are at least one year old in the outlet village, the deals are not impressive at all and certainly not good enough for someone investing a day in travelling to the middle of nowhere to get there!

 

 

Check out the prices by clicking and zooming on the photos.

In a nutshell, Marni priced coat at 1.950 EUR (instead of 3.935 EUR); belt at 60 EUR instead of 120 EUR, sandals at 395 EUR, instead of 790EUR, handbag 640 EUR instead of 1.280 EUR.  Smaller purse would set you off at 395 EUR instead of 790 EUR; leather collar 100 EUR, instead of 200, pump shoes 200 instead of 392, 93 (what price is that?), trousers 230 EUR instead of 460 EUR, lace -off shoes 175 EUR instead of 345,98 EUR, shopping bag 115 EUR discounted from 230 EUR.

 

Coach bag: 199,20 EUR from 695 EUR, 135,20 EUR from 395 EUR, saffiano soft wallet 47,20 EUR instead of  150 EUR.

Red Valentino: coat priced at 350 EUR from 695 EUR, sweater 150 EUR from 295 EUR, skirt 100 EUR from 185 EUR, bag 210 EUR from 420 EUR, shoes 200 EUR from 390 EUR or 130 EUR from 260 EUR.

Cesare Paciotti: ankle boots 356 EUR from 531 EUR, saffiano bag 193 EUR from 288 EUR, suede boots 402 EUR instead of 600 EUR, sneakers 209 EUR instead of 312 EUR.

Vivienne Westwood: dress 324 EUR from 540 EUR; gloves 124 EUR from 190 EUR, necklace 60 EUR instead of 120 EUR.

Calvin Klein dress discounted by 83% to 690 EUR from 4.050 EUR; shoes at 168 EUR from 495 EUR, bag at 350 EUR from 1075 EUR.

Ermenegildo Zegna: shoes 230 EUR instead of 355 EUR; belt 135EUR  instead of 210 EUR; tie 85 EUR instead of 145 EUR, jersey 390 EUR from 780 EUR, trousers 145 EUR from 295 EUR, jacket 340 EUR from 970 EUR, scarf 145 EUR from 245 EUR, bag 455 EUR from 700 EUR, shoes 385 EUR from 595 EUR.

Missoni: scarf 69 EUR instead of 110 EUR, poncho 105 EUR instead of 175 EUR, dress 535 EUR from 875 EUR.

I almost lost my good spirits walking from one store to another, until I ended up in Etro store, who miraculously were still selling some leftovers from Sales’ season. This gave me a light of hope that during sales indeed, it may be worthwhile to check out the place, but certainly not so during regular months. If you are lucky enough to find a brand still selling sales’ items, like I did, the prices indeed do not bite too much as they were discounted with additional 60% on average from the outlet price (check out my next post about it as I will be providing lots of details).

Fratellli Rossetti was the other brand who had a few items with the better deals (I will dedicate to it a separate post too).

I bought a famous print Missoni scarf for the “special” price (btw, practically never wear it- not exactly my style after all).

All in all: check it out during sales, if you are around. Don’t bother outside of Sales season or if you need a day to reach the place (as was the case for me). Italy is full of other (better) places to shop.

Where: Fidenza Village, Via San Michele Campagna , Località Chiusa Ferranda , 43036 Fidenza (Parma) Italy