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.