Art & Craft shopping in Italy
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Fabriano
Fabriano makes stationery sexy, with deeply desirable diaries, funky notebooks and products embossed with street maps of Rome. Enlightened extras include quirky paper jewellery by local designers and stylish paper-thin wallets.
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Bassetti Tessuti
Hidden away in a run-of-the-mill palazzo (palace), Bassetti Tessuti is a sprawling, technicolour temple to textiles. From fine Italian wools and silks, to cheetah-print faux fur, a jaw-dropping 200,000 fabrics line its endless sea of soaring, cracked rooms. Brothers Emidio and Lorenzo Bassetti set up shop in 1954, serving everyone from couture royalty to needle-savvy homemakers.
It's a fabulously atmospheric place, caught in a retro time warp of linoleum floors and wizened old men pushing cart after cart of rare and luscious threads.
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Andreini
A century ago the statues and ceramics crafted here adorned the gardens of Tuscan nobility. Even today you'd need a lot of money to afford most of the work on show in this workshop-gallery. It is tempting to imagine that in this kind of place lies the heritage of the great Renaissance sculptors' workshops. For those eager to add a special touch to their houses, this is where to come for a fine copy of a David or Venus.
If nothing else, it is worth dropping by for a browse in this wonderful relic of another epoch.
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Medea
If you're after something ceramic but are fed up with the ubiquitous range of gaudy yellow fruit bowls, then look no further. At this gallery-cum-laboratory-cum-shop, you'll find an interesting selection of original handmade vases, lamps, animals, figurines, plates and tiles. Particularly outstanding are the huge red and black vases by ceramic artist Ugo Marano. And if you're wondering, yes, they cost a bomb - for a life-sized vase expect to fork out in the region of around €12000.
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La Scarabattola
Not only have La Scarabattola's handmade sculptures of magi (wise men), devils and Neapolitan folk figures featured in top exhibitions (including the Venice Biennale), their fans include Spanish royalty. Figurines aside, their sleek, contemporary ceramic creations (think Pulcinella-inspired place-card holders) make for some urbane souvenirs. Ask nicely and you might just get to see the masters in action at their nearby workshop.
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Marco Polo
One of the handful of larger reliable glass merchants in Murano, Marco Polo offers you the opportunity to see the masters at work, a large display of traditional glassware, the possibility of having objects tailor-made and sent to your country and, upstairs, a quasimuseum of contemporary art in glass by local master Andres Pagnes and international names such as Tony Cragg and Costas Varotsos.
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Talarico
Mario Talarico and his nephews have turned the humble umbrella into a work of art. Sought after by international heads of state, each piece is a one-off, complete with mother-of-pearl buttons, a horn tip and a handle made from a single tree branch. While top-of-the-range pieces can fetch up to €300, there are more-affordable options that will keep the budget-conscious singing in the rain.
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My Cup of Tea
In a hard-to-find converted artist's studio (walk through the main entrance and ring the bell at the courtyard door), this self-dubbed 'creative incubator' showcases the work of emerging artists and fashion designers (with an emphasis on women's and children's fashion). Past stock includes felt jewellery from Italo-Brit Biondo, and kitschy celebrity portraits by Daniele Cima.
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Via Carlo Mafrolla
Vieste is primarily a beach resort and has only a few sights of interest located in the winding medieval streets of the historic centre. From the Chiesa di San Francesco (a former monastery, closed for restoration) at the tip of the promontory walk up Via Carlo Mafrolla where boutique craftshops selling ceramics and local handicrafts have replaced hippy market stalls.
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L'arlecchino
The folks at L'Arlecchino claim the masks are made only with papier-mâché to their own designs. To prove it you can inspect the workshop. The quality of masks, which hang at all levels in this cramped shop and together form what could be the outlandish spectators in a tightly packed dream-world theatre, is unquestionable.
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Firenze of Papier Maché
There are masks for all occasions and sculpted icons for every taste at this atmospheric shop-cum-studio of 20 years standing. If you're travelling elsewhere in Italy you'll probably see rip-offs of Bijan's striking and clever creations but ask for one of his cards - it might be cheap but it's also original.
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Via Garibaldi
Despite being a tourist town, Orvieto still has plenty of shops selling decent ceramics, lace and delicious sample packs of local wines, sausage, olive oil, cheeses and funghi (mushroom) products. Via Garibaldi is a pedestrian shopping street with as many clothiers as ceramicists.
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Mondo Pop
For Gen-X/Y pop freaks who have it all. This new gallery-cum-shop stocks a rotating selection of products designed by cultish street artists such as Massimo Caccia, Cesko and MTV's Jeremyville - from pop-print T-shirts and poufs, to art toys and 'where-did-you-get-that?' bags.
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Il Papiro
A bright, spacious stationer's, the Florentine chain store Il Papiro (with three branches in Venice) doesn't pretend to compete with the handful of traditional marbled-paper shops around town. But it does offer everything from elegant envelopes to letter openers and quills.
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Giuseppe Ferrigno
King of the Christmas cribs, Ferrigno's terracotta figurines are sought by collectors worldwide. Part studio, part shop, its shelves are lined with enough doting Marys, buxom peasants and elaborate market sets to keep your presepe on the nativity scene A-list.
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Berengo
Here is a purveyor of glass that has long abandoned any pretence of functionality in its products. This is glass for art's sake and the company's master glass-makers work to designs by contemporary artists, such as Turin-born Riccardo Licata, long a lagoon resident.
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Colorificio Poli
Step back in time at this shop specialising in rare paints, much of it still made by hand and scooped from ancient glass jars. Still run by the founder’s grandchildren, the shop attracts perfectionist decorators as well as both professional and amateur ceramicists.
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Brancolini Grimaldi
If your credit card hasn't already taken a serious pounding, pop in to Brancolini Grimaldi. Part of the Ferragamo corporation, this gallery exhibits new and established artists (some local but mostly foreign), and is particularly strong in photography.
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Blue Chiara Luce
Need a frock for your pastori (nativity-scene figurines)? Lucia Azzurro sews up baroque costumes in silks and linens for crib-scene characters and religious statuettes, leaving your three wise men perfectly preened for any miraculous occasion.
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Livio de Marchi
Featuring wooden sculptures of underpants, socks and shirts, this shop is rather strange but somewhat endearing all the same. Just how you might incorporate a fine carving of an unironed shirt into your living room's décor is another question.
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Galleria Ferruzzi
Roberto Ferruzzi's images of Venice are an engaging, almost naive version of what we see. With fat brushstrokes and primary colours, the artist creates a kind of children's gingerbread Venice. On sale are screen prints, paintings and postcards.
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Manetti & Masini
Since 1948 this classic ceramic store has been producing top-quality porcelain, specialising in reproduction antique majolica and restoring the genuine articles. Tucked away just off chic Via de' Tornabuoni, you could easily miss it.
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Bugno Art Gallery
This gallery has some works by contemporary artists on permanent display, although money is the object. While you might not be able to afford a Miró or De Chirico, there's plenty of other material for the modern-art collector.
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Ditta Marchiano Augusto
Geppetto had nothing on this woodworker, who offers up Pinocchios for a few euro, plus more unique miniature wood statuary, in this pleasantly dusty and crowded little shop. However, his real business is beautiful, handmade frames.
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Studio In Venice
Alon Baker runs this Venice branch of the original store in Old Jaffa, Israel. It produces all sorts of bright handmade artwork, from parts of the Torah to imaginative paintings, all taking their inspiration from Jewish tradition.
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