What are great italian made purchases that people have made? Last trip to Italy there was wine shipped home, cheese, olive oil, spices, wine stoppers, and balsamic.
Other items from various areas? We will be in the Dolomites, Venice, Rome, Florence and Tuscany.
Planning on buying an extra suitcase along the way to get it all back to the States.
Not sure what I would have done without this forum!
Dried porcinis. Easy to carry home.
Also easy to transport (from the Dolomites) are tiny, Anri wood carvings. Interestingly shaped pastas of all shapes? Of course, always Murano glass actually from Murano and lace from Burano. I like to shop, too.....
I enjoy bringing home sheets of beautiful Florentine and marbles papers. The shops that produce such papers are often hard to find and once found will often allow a visitor to view their production.
my favorite souvenir is from Volterra - a saucer sized alabaster dish with 4 alabaster eggs in it. I have 4 children (3B 1G) and I bought 3 eggs roughly the same colour and 1 slightly different. It occupies a place of honour on a hall table and everyone that comes in asks about it! It was inexpensive, meaningful and easy to transport. I also have a beautiful hand painted ceramic wine bottle stopper that I bought in Caltagirone, Sicily, but it gets limited usage as it's not often we don't finish a bottle we open!
Pizza!
I love the colorful Murano glass jewelry - they pack easily and make great gifts.
Hand painted ceramic pottery is one of my favorites in Tuscany...I've carried pieces on my lap on the plane to make sure they get home in one piece! Entirely worth it...
In the Dolomites, wood carvings from the Val Gardena are quite beautiful. In the mountains there is also a tradition of hat pins that go into the traditional felt hats - there are many different kinds and we have collected quite a few. They also have metal "badges" (for lack of a better word) that are affixed to walking sticks to commemorate mountains you have climbed. You can also find interesting shoes in the area that are part loafer part hiking shoe - trachtenshuhe - mine are suede, they lace up on the side of the foot, and they are decorated with little Eidelweiss flowers embroidered on the sides. I wear them in the winter!
Leather seems to be the thing to buy in Florence. Street stalls sell all sorts of things made out of it but for good quality you have to pay a bit more in one of the stores or workshops in town.
In Rome, rosewood rosaries. In Florence, as mentioned, beautiful leather and paper items. South of Tuscany: In Assisi, olive wood utensils and woodcut prints. In Orvieto and Deruta, ceramics. Whether jewelry, ceramics, woodcuts, or a small print, it is fun to buy something from the artist in his or her studio.
Aged Asiago cheese! Shoiuld have bought more. The only "Asiago" cheese that I could find in the States is American "Asiago" cheese and its only ages for 6 months.
The glass beads in Venice were nice and didn't take up much space.
Scarves and pashminas. They are inexpensive, pack well and make great gifts. Every time I wear the ones that I keep for myself I remember my trips. And people always ask where I get my lovely scarves.....
I usually always buy a piece of pottery - a small serving piece.
I got a great little dish with a small and large circle hooked together.
The larger size if or olives and the smaller side is to put the pits.
Always try to get something very small to fit in my bag.
Everything mentioned, plus olive oil soap (no worry about breaking or spilling), leather goods (many stores have stalls in the marketplaces), silk, clothing, shoes. aalways look for "Made in Italy".
Attention shoppers: end of season sales in January and July, 30-70% off.
18 Karat Italian Gold.
I have a collection (OK, 3) of small glass birds I got for every trip to Venice. We have another trip soon so I guess I will have 4! We go to Murano and I think I spend 45 min in and out of the little shops looking for the perfect bird to add. It seems to be a tradition...and they wrap them really well and they take up no room in the luggage!
I try to buy a long-sleeved striped dress shirt each time I go. That way when I wear it, I'm reminded of Italy and any particular story that went into the purchase of it.
Leather in Florence. They have beautiful leather gloves in every possible color, even purple. I bought small leather embossed waste baskets at a kiosk that fold flat down, and made wonderful gifts. Murano Glass earrings in Venice. Dried mushrooms at Campo di Fiori in Rome, Rosaries at the Vatican. My things are all small and packable, but I LOVE my gloves! Haven't been to the Dolomites yet. Oh, yes.......they sell beautiful under-things all over Italy and usually bring some home for my daughter.
I always buy cheese at the last stop. If you want to be sure that your mushrooms are real porcini (boletus edulis), check the variety in fine print on the label; large, pretty slices are often a different variety. Venetian papier mache masks can be fragile, but not heavy. My favorite shop also now offers seminars to decorate your own mask: www.camacana.com. Ceramics come in a big variety of designs and quality, and you can't carry too many; I love the souvenir plates I've collected at Buon Ricordo restaurants as well as the all-handmade ones I paid €100 for in Deruta. If you're making a major, heavy purchase, get it shipped by the vendor.
When we pass or visit Florence we run up the hill to Fiesole and add another flat bowl to our pasta serving and eating collection, all a similar pattern from the same shop....
Here is another big thumbs up for Camacana masks in Venice! I ordered many, many masks (a wall full) from them about 15 years ago. It was a real kick to be able to see the store when I finally visited Venice.
Scarves are also a big favorite of mine. On each trip I try to get at least one really nice scarf, in addition to several cheap (but wonderful) pashminas and street vendor scarves.
We buy Christmas ornaments in every city we stop in. They look great on the tree, make it more personal and they bring back great memories
45 years ago (!) we bought an oil painting from an artist in Piazza Navona. Really cheap at the time (less than $25 -- cost more to frame it once we were home) but I still have it hanging on the wall and it's a reminder of Italy and of that marvelous trip. On a more recent trip it was scarves for me and keychains for the kids.
