Shopping in Italy
-
A
Mercato Centrale
Central food market inside an iron-and-glass structure dating to 1874.
reviewed
-
B
La Parissienne
First opened in 1906 (yes, that is not a misprint!), and best known for introducing Capri pants in the 1960s, famously worn by Jacqueline Onassis, who bought them from here – La Parissienne can run you up a made-to-measure pair within a day. Apparently Clark Gable was another Hollywood star who favoured the fashions here, particularly the Bermuda shorts, which (believe it or not) were considered quite raffish in their day.
reviewed
-
C
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.
reviewed
-
D
Louis Vuitton
Forget handbags. The star turn at Rome's latest Louis Vuitton store is a show-stopping, plasma-screen staircase. Based on a concept by New York-based architect Peter Marino (and looking like it's straight off a Madonna concert set),this visual tour de force transforms itself from psychedelic snake to technicolour torrent in seconds. For the full effect, head in after hours when the stairs are free of clutter and at their hi-tech best.
reviewed
-
E
Daniela Ghezzo
A gold chain is pulled across the doorway, but not because Daniela is out: she’s chatting with a customer about shoe preferences while taking foot measurements. In this historic atelier, maestra Ghezzo continues the tradition of custom-making every pair to measure, so you’ll never see your oxblood ankle boots on another art collector, or your charcoal-grey wingtips on a rival titan of industry.
reviewed
-
F
Davinia Design
Less is more at this working studio of simple, dramatic Murano brick-red glass pendants and cufflinks that look like tiny sea urchins clinging to your wrists. You’ll usually find transplanted Belgian artisan Davinia at work here fashioning clever, understated daisy stud earrings that look more elegant but cost less than flowery fantasias you’ll find around Piazza San Marco – there’s a good range from €19 to €37.
reviewed
-
G
Tom Ford
When Tom Ford took over Zegna’s old digs he didn’t skimp at putting his stamp on the place. A work by current artworld darling Anselm Reyle greets shoppers who are invited to join in a consensual hallucination that they’re just visiting a friend’s opulently decorated villa. There are actually five floors of madly masculine styling, all for sale. The top floors are reserved for made-to-measure clients, with a bar as well as private bitch’n’stitch lounges.
reviewed
-
H
Società Abbigliamento Rappresentanze Tessuti (SART)
In a gentleman’s quest for sartorial splendour, when only the finest Italian cloth will do, the address to know is SART, hidden away off the courtyard of a grand palazzo that also houses Rome’s venerable hunting club. Walk through the porter’s office and you’ll find the entrance to the right of the courtyard. There are rolls of lavish wools, linens and cottons, and you can pick up cashmere jumpers to complete your look.
reviewed
-
fresh-produce market
Modena's fresh-produce market has its main entrance on Via Albinelli.
Like Bologna and Parma, Modena is an important gastronomic town. Its most famous product is aceto balsamico, considered the best in Italy by gourmets, but the centre also produces an excellent prosciutto crudo and zampone (stuffed pig's trotter). Tortellini is another speciality, as is Lambrusco, a lively, sparkling red, to be drunk chilled and with everything.
reviewed
-
I
Ottica Vascellari
Second-generation opticians and first-class eyewear stylists, the Vascellari family intuit eyewear needs with a glance at your prescription and a long look to assess your face shape and personal style. Angular features demand Vascellari’s signature bold architectural eyewear line with two-tone laminates, delicate features are set off with sleek satin-finish specs, and fabulous gold-rimmed sunglasses will have the crowds parting for you at the Venice film festival.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
J
Antonia Boutique
New-breed buyer Antonia Giancinti’s eponymous boutique mixes locals like Bottega Veneta with international labels like Lam, Lavin, Biba and McCartney in an urban, monochrome space that echoes her Carrie Bradshaw-ish aesthetic. Antonia Accessori ([tel] 02 869 0216; Via Cusani 4; [hrs] 3-7pm Mon, 10am- 7pm Tue-Sat; [tram] 1 [metro] Lanza) displays the same brash zeitgeistiness. Trust her, she’s a self-proclaimed shoe-victim (and she’s not talking bunions).
reviewed
-
K
TAD
TAD is a cutting-edge conceptual department store that sells an entire lifestyle. Here you can buy clothes by Chloë, Balenciaga and more, have a haircut, buy scent and flowers, and furnish your apartment with wooden daybeds and Perspex dining chairs. Don’t forget to pick up soundtracks to your perfect life from the CD rack. The serene courtyard cafe is the perfect ladies-who-lunch pitstop, offering appropriately stylish Italian-Asian morsels.
reviewed
-
L
Drogheria Mascari
Ziggurats of cayenne, leaning towers of star anise and chorus lines of spotlit olive oils attract crowds of awestruck foodies to Drogheria Mascara’s windows. Indoors, customers clutch tiny jars of white truffles like holy relics, and staff help dazed first-timers navigate the selection of Sicilian capers and 50 kinds of aromatic honeys. For memorable small-production Italian wines at €10 to €30 – including Veneto cult winemakers like Quintarelli – don’t miss the backroom enoteca (wine bar).
reviewed
-
M
Cantina del Canton
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.
reviewed
-
N
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.
reviewed
-
O
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.
reviewed
-
P
Il Pavone di Fabio Pelosin
Baccalà mantecato (Venice’s signature fish pâté) is bound to come out better when captured in a handmade recipe book stamped with Venetian Gothic architectural patterns. Il Pavone’s recipe books, travel logs and day planners are printed with traces of metallic pigments, but don’t just judge them by their shimmering covers. Inside they’re well organised with tabs and headings for meal planning, trip highlights and upcoming birthdays.
reviewed
-
Q
Cartè
Lagoon ripples mysteriously appear on marbled-paper necklaces and hand-bound portfolios thanks to the steady hands and restless imagination of carta marmorizzata (marbled paper) maestra Rosanna Corrò. After years restoring ancient Venetian manuscripts and books, Rosanna began creating original, bookish beauties: aquatic marbled-paper cocktail rings, hypnotically swirled statement necklaces, op-art jewellery boxes and surreal book-bound handbags featuring woodgrain patterns.
reviewed
-
Eataly
Adjacent to the congress centre is the Slow Food Movement’s ‘supermarket’, Eataly. This vast converted factory now houses a staggering array of Slow Food–affiliated food and beverages, with a separate area for each, including cheeses, breads, meats, fish, pasta, chocolate and much more. The best time to visit is around 12.30pm to 2.30pm, when each area has its own little restaurant serving lunch. There’s also a high-end restaurant here, for which you’ll need to book ahead.
reviewed
-
Nave De Oro
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 per litre. There are many branches of this chain around.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
R
Mosaico!
Marta Bertaggia plies Venice’s ancient artisan trade with similar tools used for San Marco’s mosaics a millennium ago: a tiny hammer and rods of raw glass. The glass is gently tapped into square tesserae (small tiles) and painstakingly set into shimmering mosaic vases, mirror frames, a stunning masquerade mask, the lion of San Marco heraldic emblem and careful recreations of Egon Schiele paintings. Custom pieces can be commissioned here too, so you can capture your own mosaic memory of Venice.
reviewed
-
S
Sigfrido Cipolato
Booty worthy of pirate royalty is displayed in this fishbowl-sized window display: a constellation of diamonds in star settings on a ring, a tiny enamelled green snake sinking its fangs into a pearl, and diamond drop earrings that end in enamelled gold skulls. Though they look like heirlooms, these small wonders were worked on the premises by master jeweller Sigfridio – and you’ll pay as little as half what you would at the high-end jewellery showrooms near San Marco that carry Cipolato’s work.
reviewed
-
T
Antiquariato Claudia Canestrelli
Hand-coloured lithographs of ‘prehistoric’ lagoon fish and 19th-century miniatures of cats dressed as generals are charming souvenirs of Venice’s past, but collector-artisan Claudia Canestrelli is bring- ing back bygone elegance with her repurposed antique earrings, including free-form baroque pearls dangling from tiny silver pigs.
reviewed
-
U
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.
reviewed
-
V
Marina e Susanna Sent
Warned that women couldn’t handle working in molten glass, two sisters from Murano, trained as an architect and a jeweller, rose to the challenge – and created Murano’s bestselling line of hand-blown glass statement jewellery. Museum shops around Venice feature their work, including ice-blue waterfall necklaces, traffic-stopping red-dot collars, and signature ‘soap’ necklaces: woven clear glass bubbles that make the wearer look both stylish and freshly scrubbed. There’s also a branch at Ponte San Moisè in San Marco.
reviewed