House shopping in Europe
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Souvenir Market
Folk art is the main source of souvenirs, which include carved wooden trinkets, ceramics and woven textiles. Unique to Belarus are wooden boxes intricately ornamented with geometric patterns composed of multicoloured pieces of straw. These are easily found in city department stores and in some museum kiosks. Most days, this small outdoor souvenir market operates in the small space between the Trade Unions' House of Culture and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.
Breeze past the cheesy paintings and you'll find crafts in the back.
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Al Canton del Vin
Wine is as important to life for Venetians as water and a fine take-home tradition persists in Venice for tipplers unable or unwilling to spend on big labels. These wine-stores are crammed with huge glass damigiane (demijohns). From these monsters, each containing a sea of modest Veneto table wine, you make a choice and have it poured into whatever you bring - used wine or mineral-water bottles, it's up to you. You will be charged, on average, around €2 per litre.
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Haremlique
The shops around the fashionable W Istanbul are among the most glamorous in the city. Marni, Chloé, Marc Jacobs and Jimmy Choo are just a few of the labels that draw the city’s moneyed elite here to shop. Among these international labels is this local business, which sells top-drawer bed linen and bathwares. Come here to source items such as boudoir cushion-covers featuring Ottoman rococo prints – they’re certain to wow your guests back home.
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Cubiña
Even if interior design doesn’t ring your bell, a visit to this extensive temple to furniture, lamps and just about any home accessory your heart might desire is worth it just to see this Domènech i Montaner building. Admire the enormous and whimsical wrought iron decoration at street level before heading inside to marvel at the ceiling, timber work, brick columns and windows. Oh, and don’t forget the furniture.
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Murano Collezioni
Like divas at Teatro La Fenice, signature glass pieces show perfect poise on elegantly spotlit pedestals in this darkened brick warehouse showroom. Famed Murano glass designers Barovier & Toso, Carlo Moretti and Venini are all represented here, and even if you’re not in the market for such high-end glass you’re welcome to stop in and admire their luminous designs in a range of techniques.
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Stile Biologico
The sprouts of a new fashion for the 21st century, where classy organic-food lovers will feel at home, have blossomed in this Florence store. Cotton, linen, wool and other material are all guaranteed organically produced. In other words, the white, cream and beige threads that dominate have been untouched by pesticides. Buy right-on clothes with right-on attitude.
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Haseki Hamam Carpet & Kilim Sales Store
Located in the historic Baths of Lady Hürrem, which are worth a visit in their own right, this Ministry of Culture carpet shop sells new carpets replicated from museum pieces. Although prices are fixed and clearly marked, you can get better deals elsewhere. However, this is a good place to come to get an idea before you launch out into the carpet shops.
reviewed
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Koza
Cyprus' heritage of producing silk from silk worms and the once ubiquitous mulberry trees comes alive in this shop, where the owner, Munise, together with her elderly mother, hand-weaves the silk patterns. The patterns were traditionally used for picture frames, or simply as framed wall decorations themselves. Koza is on the 1st floor, above Moniat Macun.
reviewed
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Epicentro
All the secrets to a perfect Italian espresso are here: stove-top espresso makers with built-in pressure valves, rechargeable milk frothers, and espresso cups in futurist shapes. This boutique is even smaller than cramped Venetian kitchens, but its steel racks are loaded with an Alessi catalogue of monkey-shaped creamers and toothbrush-hugging trolls.
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Io sono un autarchico
If you could move in this shoe-box-sized shop you would probably enjoy browsing through the bric-a-brac. As it is you have to make way practically every time someone new enters. Still, the shelves are heaving with weird and wonderful household items and it's a friendly place. The shop's name is a reference to a film by Roman director Nanni Moretti.
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Oikotexnia
You'll find top-quality merchandise here, and your money goes to a good cause - the preservation and promotion of traditional Greek handicrafts (the gallery is run by the Institute of Social Protection). There are knotted carpets in authentic Greek designs, kilims, flokatis, needlepoint rugs, tableclothes and embroidered cushion covers.
reviewed
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Ofelia Comforter Shop
One of the biggest treats of travelling in Denmark is getting intimate with those big fat soporific Danish comforters. If you have half a mind to take one home with you, like a stray kitten, this is the place to go ga-ga on light cotton duvets and chunky warm white goose down fillings. You'll even get a sports bag to carry it home.
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Mercato Mensile Antiquariato
If you're lucky enough to be in Perugia on the fourth weekend of the month, spend a few hours in the Mercato Mensile Antiquariato around the Piazza Italia and in the Giardini Carducci. It's a great place to pick up old prints, frames, furniture, jewellery, postcards and stamps. Open from 09:00 until 6 or 19:00, or when it rains.
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Convento Santa Úrsula
Toledo is famed for its ceramics and its mazapán (marzipan), which every shop seems to sell regardless of the quality. The Santo Tomé brand is reputable and there are several outlets in town, including one on Zocodover. Even the local nuns get in on the marzipan act - check out Convento Santa Úrsula.
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Hikmet + Pinar
An opulently decorated store filled to the brim with top-class Ottoman-era furniture, mirrors, glassware, textiles and paintings, Hikmet + Pinar is the type of place you enter only if you're ready to spend the cash equivalent of a second mortgage. We bet they furnish more than their fair share of İstanbul mansions.
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Gemma Povo
Several streets in the heart of old Barcelona bustle with decades of collected furniture, gewgaws and other odd sights. Rummagers should head for Carrer de la Palla (B2) and Carrer dels Banys Nous (B3) for starters. In the latter is this interesting stop, where you'll find items in the house speciality: wrought iron.
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Arform
One-stop-shopping for that effortlessly cosmopolitan Milanese look, with superb design pieces in natural materials from Finland to Japan, New York to Milan. Pack your Marimekko flower-print napkins and your train-station GB Milan clock in your Qurz wood-panelled briefcase, and you've got fusion style in the bag.
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OK-KO Research
Ironic hipsters shop here for Andy Warhol light boxes, lurid plastic chairs, Dutch designer clocks, chill-out compilation CDs and fluoro-coloured handbags in the shape of watering cans. The counter doubles as a deck for the in-house DJ and aperitivo (aperitif) is served upstairs in the winter.
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Archivia
Muted is not in the vocabulary of Archivia, with its bright mix of modern homewares. The Italian and French designs are made to stand out: minimalists should give it a wide berth; others should expect plenty of plastic tableware in primary colours, modern lamps, garish mirrors and loud picture frames.
reviewed
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Jesurum Outlet
Jesurum is one of the traditional names in Venetian lace, in business since the late 19th century. Set back from the fondamenta (canalside street) is a huge warehouse and workshop where you can buy ready-made pieces (from pillow cases to doilies) or you can ask for made-to-measure items.
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Neumarkt 17
Neumarkt 17 offers furniture shaped by a stripped-back, held-back aesthetic that reminds you you're in the German bit of Switzerland. You may not be able to take home one of their tubular couches or child's-drawing tables, but there are more baggable items if you're feeling in a minimalist mood.
reviewed
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Qadim Quba
You can watch Quba’s famous carpets being made at Qadim Quba, which also has a delightful boutique selling them along with handicrafts and paxlava (alternating layers of chopped nuts and white, stringy, fried pastry, all saturated in a sickly sweet syrup).
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Modiglioni
Upper-class Romans flock to Modiglioni for its high-class homewares, including unusual pieces such as oversized ceramic chickens. Besides chickens, it stocks the best in Italian design, from classic Murano glassware to sleek Alessi steel, as well as Wedgewood plates and Danish porcelain.
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Vache & Cow
Staking its claim as '100% cow', this boutique is a testament to its owners' resourcefulness in sourcing and stocking cow-adorned items - from towels to soaps to kitchen utensils to stationery to toys. Look for the life-size black-and-white-splotched fibreglass cow out front.
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