Bringing small gift to Italy

Maybe some Starbucks shares? :-)

Something from a local Seattle museum such as a small notebook with the museum graphic might be appreciated.

Sharyn, that is a good idea.....thanks!
Michael, unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to buy Starbucks stock. No Amazon, Microsoft, or Costco either :(

There is a Made in Washington store at SeaTac in the main terminal. They have some cool gifts.

Make it something consumable. Can you imagine how many tchotchkes they might have from places they've never been?

I like consumables. I think some Seattle chocolate maybe. Thanks for the replies.

Smoked salmon from the PNW that is vacuum packed and doesn't need refrigeration would be fantastic. I did a quick Google search and it seems that it is up for debate whether or not it is allowed. If it is, it would be a treat for sure.

Second smoked salmon. Some of the dried fruit things like the chocolate covered dried cherries might also work. But the smoked salmon is pretty terrific and likely to be welcomed.

Three votes for the smoked salmon. It's local, it travels well, and it's consumable.

I have taken the vacuum-packed smoked salmon many places as a gift and it is always well-received. It comes in a cardboard box with Northwest Native American art decoration so is a nice presentation. You can find it at Made in Seattle, several places in the Pike Place Market, and many other places ( often at Bartell's, but mostly near Christmas time). Costco carries larger Packages, but you don't want those big ones!

Just make sure it is the local-style "dry smoke" salmon, not the lox. That must always be refrigerated.

I'd hate to say this (and you should take it as only one very limited data point), but I got one of those sealed smoked salmons as a gift once. It went totally bad. I opened it and tons of fishy water solution spilled out all over the place...the fish itself had a suspiciously strong odor (there was no way to guess by viewing the box from the outside). I ended up sealing it in a plastic bag (to get rid of the smell) and tossing out. I know it's just one bad egg, but it taught me to be really careful with giving food as gifts. It is a unique gift, but I also think Italians have excellent food and I'm not sure they'd like the taste of smoked salmon. I don't know if they'd like a small Native American art piece (unique to the Pacific West Coast tribes) either, but I will root for something like that (small, well packed, not breakable). Or some unusual chocolate. Definitely not coffee since Italians excel at coffee. Best of luck picking out something! It's very thoughtful of you to entertain the idea of a gift in the first place.

I'm not sure you can make it through airport security with smoked salmon in your carry-on. The kind I'm picturing is in the sealed foil pouch with lots of oil. You can buy it inside SeaTac after going through security (it's not much more expensive that way), but I'm not sure what would happen with it at your connecting airport in Europe. Chocolate covered WA cherries would not be a problem.

One other thought we be some soft of consumable with a Starbucks label. I'm thinking chocolate covered coffee beans.

I've been thinking about a small gift for our Airbnb hosts in Vernazza as well. I'm considering embroidered dish towels as I thought they could even leave them in the apartment for other guests to use, but like the chocolate idea too as there's a good chocolatier here in town.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am wavering between the smoked salmon and the chocolate covered cherries.