Bringing gifts for European family

What about smoked salmon?

Well, considering the coffee in Italy is pretty consistently wonderful, perhaps something else would be more appreciated?

Oregon is a beautiful state with a lovely coastline, and the Pacific rain forest area, so maybe something with pictures, like a coffee table book, or nice calendars. Doesn't Oregon have a Native American community? Often, hand made Native American items are extremely well liked by Europeans, as it is something totally different to what they have in their own country.

We brought Maple Sugar candies with us. They were Very Canadian, and Very Popular with our friends. They were also small and easy to carry. Anything really local from Oregan would probably be great.

I gave a friend a calendar of Wisconsin sites. It focused on Wisconsin's beautiful outdoors as my friend is a walker and appreciates nature. Pam

While in line at Costco, the gal next to me had several large containers of Hadley's fresh pitted dates (found in the produce section). She said she was taking them to her relatives in Scotland since they are very expensive in their country. I know you are going to Rome, but maybe this would be a great treat for your relatives also. The downside is it's a large container, however, you could bring back souvenirs in it's place! Have a great time making lifetime memories.

I usually bring along a couple of pounds of dinosaur fossils from the Alberta badlands. They're definitely unique and treasured!

Otherwise, I also agree that anything with a native culture background is also very much appreciated by Europeans. Jewellery or dreamcatchers are quite popular.

Oregon is an EASY place to find fun gifts! Over the past 6 years our Spanish exchange family has enjoyed the Oregon cookbook,Pendleton blanket, calendars,Oregon themed shopping bag, souvineer kitchen towel, pinor noir chocolates, hazelnut candies, T-shirts, cooking apron,jewelry handmade in Oregon,hand-made pottery pie pan with 3 Sisters mountains on it(the Spanish are intrigued with the idea of American pies!)...anything that suggests a sense of place.We love it when we get the Spanish equivalents. Anytime we use the little Spanish bullfighter can opener, we smile and think of them!Since we are originally from Indiana, they get every new John Mellencamp CD that comes out.Give them anything that helps them share a little bit of your lives.Another idea is sports paraphenalia.Since Rudy Fernandez is Spanish, we bought our Spanish daughter a Rudy Trailblazers T-shirt at a recent game.I like to give and receive gifts that are useful in everyday life.

When we visited Sweden, we took gifts but one that didn't work well was chocolate covered Starbucks coffee beans. Swedish people love coffee, but the chocolate melted (we went in July), and it was a horrible mess.

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies! Indeed local seems the way to go, not necessarily anything big (although the Pendleton blanket sounds great), just things they can use every day. To the poster who mentioned the coffee: yes it's funny, I thought it might be a bit of hubris to bring coffee to Italy, mecca of all good coffee! :-) And yet I do wonder if they might be interested to try some of the best (IMHO) of what America has to offer in that department. It is the Pacific Northwest after all! We'll see. Anyway, thanks, and if anyone else has thoughts to add, please feel free!
Diane

If you want something small, what about fridge magnets? Also consider handmade craft items, like kitchen towels, etc. A lady in our church makes "tubes" of dish towels and you hang them up and put your plastic grocery bags in them to store until you can reuse. Something like that might be appreciated in Europe where more people seem to recycle.

Follow the president's lead and bring some DVD's encoded for the US region :)

Well I got my shopping done for gifts, and thought I'd let you all know what I decided on. For my cousin and her husband, I have a solid red 100% wool Pendleton throw- made here in Oregon. I also had to stop at Spella's, a local coffee roaster who has a cart in Portland's downtown, and get a half pound of his espresso roast- yes it may be hubris but I'm bringing it anyway. For their daughter (early 20's), I have a gift set of delectable bath products from a company called Lush, not Oregon but still Pacific Northwest, specifically Vancouver- and they don't ship overseas, so it's not something she could just buy on the internet. I also found her something similar to the fridge magnet suggestion- some locally made pushpins made of marbles, with images embedded inside. Very "indie Portland". Finally, for my cousin's elderly mother, my father's aunt, I have a painting that I made recently, small and will take up almost no room in the bag (unframed).
I'm very happy with the gifts I will be bringing to Roma!

PS- and thanks for all your suggestions.

Sounds like you made some very thoughtful purchases. Please come back after your trip and let us know how much everybody enjoyed them. I know I would like a Pendleton blanket. I wish you were MY relative. 8-)

ALL your gifts sound great but FYI LUSH cosmetics is a UK company.
Have a wonderful trip.

Ack! I wish I'd done better research... there's been so much to do! Oh well, what's done is done... thanks!

Diane, Unfortunately the West Coast doesn't have Cracker Barrel... but Arizona does!

I brought back stuff from CB to give to my European friends. They got a kick out of some items.

I think any gift you bring is thoughtful... even something as simple as an apron!