Creative, memorable gifts from Cinque, Florence, Rome or Siena

Ari Altho originating in southern Italy, we also found this in Cinque Terre: Limencello, a lemon flavored liquor. A small bottle would be perfect gift! Florence for leather. Gloves and wallets are a great gift but get the size before you leave. Not cheap but small and fabulous. Some shops have a "seconds" bin which look flawless to me. Markets can be a good source of cheaper leather goods and other items. Also many wonderful leather stores for you and your wife to puspecial leather coats or jackets for your anniversary. I would check out which stores to go to before you leave . Markets (with or without food) are another resource and fun to go to anyway. Watch the way European women wear scarves. You can buy a wide variety in the markets for a great price. For those teens who are leery, snap a couple of photos of young women with them on. (To be continued below) Bobbie

(Continued from above) Oh, this is a great one. Artistic and useful at the same time! There is wonderful Florentia, a classic Florentine paper, sold in many formats such as: invitations, stationary, books, bookmarks, gift wrap paper, boxes, diaries, photo albums, and more. Check out www. italophiles.com/florencia.htm for the style. I saw this all over Tuscany. Since you are on Rick Steves Helpline, I assume you are not just going for the shopping. You are obviously a considerate and generous person to think about bringing back gifts for your friends and family. If any of these ideas appeal to you, do what research you can for the costly items. However, depending on the number of gifts, you could spend a LOT of time (and money) shopping. Your hotel would be a good source for stores on accessory items or markets. If you want less expensive, say so, or you will be going to the tourist or high end places. Maybe you could pick out what is easy to get along the way, and figure to get cheese (and maybe prosciutto ?) at the airport on your way out. But check to see what your departure airport shops have available. I think shipping wine is way too expensive. Also, bring an extra piece of luggage to put your gifts in. Or buy a great leather bag or briefcase! I am sure there will be other great suggestions! Bobbie

Since you brought up cheese and prosciutto, are you allowed to bring such things back with you to the U.S.? I can hardly wait to taste such things and would LOVE to be able to bring some home.

My favorite thing to get family is small oil paintings or sketches from the local artist street vendors. They have them of all the local sights of every city you will be in. It's not museum quality but they are usually very good and you can't get more original than that. I can usually find them from 15 to 40 euros each and when you consider it adds nothing to your luggage weight, it's a no brainer. Have a fabulous time. I just spent my 10th in Tuscany too!

Laura, I think you can bring back cheeses and salamis as long as they are vaccume sealed.

Actually, I take that back about the salamis. Cheeses only. Sorry.

Thanks everyone!

Being realistic, a lot of the items that you'll see in Italy can now be found in the U.S., and often for similar prices. Consider how much time out of your travelling time you want to spend looking for items for other people. Maybe it's just me, but I would never buy someone else gloves (fit matters) or wallets (I'm very picky about the size/shape of my wallets). One item that has been a big hit with our teen-aged son (who has been on some, but not all, of our European trips) is soccer shirts of various teams. He learns about the teams and the players, and often gets positive comments/questions when he wears them. You'll see soccer (calcio) shirts everywhere, of varying degrees of quality. Yes, you can ship wine back, but it takes some time for the wine to get through customs. Often, you can find most Italian wines in the U.S. too, especially if you work with a good store (K&L, located in California, is who we use the most). One thing you can do if you like a particular wine is ask the winery who handles their U.S. imports, then call that company when you return. My husband is a huge wine buff, and we've never shipped wine back, and only rarely bring wine back (in our checked luggage).

Rick's Italy book suggests getting some of the colorful scarves/flags that depict the symbols of Siena's 17 different neighborhoods, such as the wolf, turtle, and the snail. Easy to pack. Sold in varying sizes at souvenir stands in Siena.

Hello! Another idea would be some ceramics/pottery pieces. They don't have to be big. When I was in Italy in 2008, I saw lots of wine bottle stoppers that were ceramic on top. They also had some small votive-sized candle holders. Another thing would be some murano glass pendants, etc for the ladies. However, this is considered more of a Venice thing. :)

Hard cheeses yes, soft cheeses no. No meat - people do it all the time, but it is illegal, so that is up to you. The famous Santa Maria Novella Farmacia in Florence has some really interesting things that make unique gifts: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmacia_di_Santa_Maria_Novella

Ari, A little gift that we found in a gift shop in Vernazza , CT (they may be available in lots of stores) were olive oil pouring spouts that had a little carved wooden olive for a stopper. We bought several and I neglected to keep one for myself. Everyone loved them. We also found some hand made wood and stainless steel wine openers (made in Lucca) that we brought home as a special gift. There are lots of silk scarves, men's ties, and Pashminas for sale in many towns and cities. Lightweight, beautiful and unbreakable of course. Have fun shopping. Sherry

Has anyone gone online prior to visiting Italy and purchase items as gifts, like aspetto.com and theitalianamericanconnection.com? I thought about doing that to save time shopping in Italy. I would rather sight see and not spend time shopping.

I also like the idea of scarves for the women. Do keep in mind that sizing in Europe is different than sizing in the U. S. I also would be leery of buying anything that required to be fitted. Something we always bring back for those folks that we know who like to cook is some of the interesting spice packets that we found in the market. Don't even think about trying to bring back vacuum sealed meats. I didn't know you couldn't, but was honest and declared mine so all they did was just confiscate it at customs. If you are caught trying to bring it thru it can be a very hefty fine.

Gloria - I've never done that but it isn't a bad idea! Also check out selectitaly.com too. My first trip to Tuscany, I bought my mom a hand painted chicken pitcher and lugged it around for two weeks only to come home and find the identical one on the 'smash and grab' clearance shelf of a TJMaxx store. Everyone now knows I don't shop on vacation so don't expect anything unless I find a stack of propaganda or posters 'accidentally' coming off the board. Those are the favorites anyway and they are free if no one sees you!

I agree with Sherry, you can get very pretty bottle stoppers with ceramic tops, or olive oil spouts, which don't cost a lot and are light and easy to pack, also salad servers (Riomaggiore had a good ion); don't take meat or cheese.... your journey is anyway too long and they could go off even if you're allowed to take it in to the states. From Siena we went on a tour to a wine/oil producing place where we tasted wine, oil and balsamico; it's called Tenuta Torciano, at San Gimignano. We bought some simply delicious truffle flavoured olive oil and some 30 year old balsamico which I wrapped up in my luggage, (I live in Europe), but you can also order any of their wines and oils etc to be sent to the USA; he does a lot of business that way. We got the tour through our hotel. Other great gifts are leather. The handbags are half the price and are beautiful, provided you know the taste of the recipient. If I hadn't been robbed in Pisa I'd have definitely bought one! My sister bought some zany necklaces in Corniglia, made of wool and other stuff twisted around, very original gifts which you won't find anywhere else! They were in a little cave-like shop in the street leading to an arched view of the sea (you can't miss it!)

I like the wine stoppers and also the Murano glass pendants/necklaces. They're small, easy to pack and unique. I found the Murano glass pendants in Rome (even though they're from Venice). I also purchased small bottles of Lemoncello for my co-workers as well as the melon-flavored liquor that we found in Monterosso; everyone loved those. I put each bottle in a sock to pack & they got home fine. For myself, I purchased a small wheel of cheese in Pienza (vacuum packed) & really enjoyed it after returning home. I even ordered another wheel last year and had it shipped here; it was fantastic! Another idea is to purchase small little prints from the art vendors in Piazza Navona in Rome. They're really cheap and they make nice souvenirs. I have a small painting from P. Navona hanging in my home & everytime I look at it, I think about our wonderful time in Rome.

lovely ideas! Thanks. We are 2 weeks away from departure.

Packaged, decorative paper napkins, aprons, placemats, and tablecloths make nice gifts.

Stuff made of olive wood make nice gifts too. Brought back a cutting board of olive wood and it looks lovely when serving a cheese flight. Although I have picked up several more at our local TJMaxx and HomeGoods stores that had a tag on them, made in Spello, near Assisi. On several trips I have brought back some beautiful terra cotta items as I love that stuff. In Assisi I admired all the terra cotta flat backed pots hanging on many of the blgs. so purchased a beautiful one in Assisi carved with grapes and leaves. Was lucky enough to go back to Assisi a year later and got a 2nd one at the same shop. They look lovely on my patio. My husband thought I was nuts but the shop bubble wrapped them and I carried them on the plane. Where there's a will there's a way!!! Last fall brought back terra cotta items purchased outside of San Gimignano on the road to Poggibonsi at Paolo Lotti--one with pomegranites and the other with grapes and leaves. I also like to pick up dish towels and they are easy to pack. Whatever you bring back people will love! Buon Viaggio and Happy anniversary!

Ari, there are stores that will ship wine, or olive oil or vinegars, but if you can't bring back wine, hand-painted ceramic bottle stoppers are easy to pack. Be careful about buying artwork on the street, unless you actually see the artist painting it, it may be a mass-produced print and not a painting. Another idea is olive oil soap. I brought back six bars from Trevi and of all the gifts I brought, the soap was the most popular. Limoncello was suggested, great idea but you'll need to pack it in checked baggage (all liquids). An alternative is to find out what you want to buy and then order from the store's website and have it shipped directly to you in Illinois. It turned out that the soap was available this way, and a couple of my friends liked it so much they ordered more online.

I used to pick up Christmas ornaments on my travels (until I accumulated too many and had to stop). They didn't have to be originally intended as Christmas ornaments, though. I looked for any appropriately sized object that I liked, that would remind me of the trip, and to which I could attach a hook for the tree. Jewelry, little wooden carved objects, lace, tiny pottery jugs, and the like have all found a place on my tree and that of my family and friends. They range from very inexpensive to rather pricey high end art objects. I've received compliments on my "international tree" with these objects from all over. My family all seems to like these gifts. And for me, I just don't worry too much whether a gift could be found online or not. I have sent soap back home to family and they all loved it. Maybe they could have ordered it online, but the point was more that I thought of them on my trip and it was something I picked out for them right in the area where it was made.