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Le Forcole Di Saverio Pastor
In need of an oar or, more importantly, a forcola (wooden support for gondolier's oar) to sit it on? These unique timber contraptions could make a quirky decorative item, or you might want one of the handful of souvenir items Saverio makes on the side.
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Legatoria Piazzesi
At the Legatoria Piazzesi, the oldest purveyor of quality paper products in Venice (and they claim in all Italy), time-honoured methods are employed to turn out high-class items. The store is a dark but tempting treasure trove, with shelves of paper stacked to the timber-beamed roof. Products range from parchments and quality wrapping paper to unique book covers.
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Legatoria Polliero
Here is a traditional exponent of the art of Venetian bookbinding with (and without) marbled paper. You barely have room to stand when you penetrate this den, with reams of leather-bound books, paper-bound folders and all sorts of other stationery piled haphazardly to the rafters.
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Legno E Dintorni
Wonderful little wooden models of various monuments and façades, akin to simple 3D puzzles, are sold here. They make rather refined gifts for kids but wouldn't go amiss with many an adult.
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Librairie Française
Voulez-vous vos livres en français? Here you will find everything from the latest bestsellers of Gallic literature to tomes on most subjects Venetian - all of it in French.
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Libreria Internazionale Marco Polo
Hunt for anything from preloved novels in various languages to new books on variegated subjects. If you're interested in the way guidebooks used to be, this is the place to rummage for antique volumes on various locations in Italy and beyond. If it's contemporary guidebooks you want, head to the sister store, Libreria San Marco (041 522 63 43; Salizada San Lio, Castello 5469; - Mon-Sat, - Sun).
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Libreria San Marco
Sister store of Libreria Internazionale Marco Polo, selling contemporary guidebooks.
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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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Manuela Calzature
This is a small family business with a broad if somewhat conservative range of shoes, including more expensive footwear that the family makes under its own name. Don't judge it by the cheap junk outside, and dare to penetrate inside this musty, narrow store.
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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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Margerie
Big silver studs wind their way over the smooth, stout leather in sky-blue or blood-red handbags. Some are shaped like fish or hearts, others are cuddly soft, still more are draped in great golden ribbons. Flower motifs abound. A key note is the almost childlike happy feeling they exude and much the same can be said of the chunky necklaces (again often with big, bright flowers, or even pompoms) and stuffed felt pins with sequins.
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Martinuzzi
Pick up high-class doilies at one of the city's traditional purveyors of fine Burano lace -recognised world-wide as classic Venice. This little store is draped in luxurious lace and also festooned with Murano glass.
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Mazzon Le Borse
A modest workshop with none of the frippery of fashion lairs, Mazzon le Borse is frequented by canny Venetian women on the lookout for top-class, handmade leather bags and accessories.
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Mercatino Dei Miracoli
On the second or third weekend of each month, a fun bric-a-brac fair is held either in the Campo San Canciano and the adjacent Campo Santa Maria Nova or along Via Giuseppe Garibaldi.
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Mercatino Dell'antiquariato
Three times a year this antiques market sets up, to the delight of collectors far and wide. It's hard to plan a visit around it as dates shift and it happens so infrequently (generally in April, September and December).
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Mille E Una Nota
In urgent need of strings for your guitar? Would you like to acquire some new panpipes, a shiny new mouth organ or perhaps even a harp? This is the place, also for sheet music.
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Molin Giocattoli
Nestled up along the bridge locally known as Ponte dei Giocattoli - Toys Bridge, this shop will attract kids with a yearning for something more titillating than Tintoretto. Pick up some glue along with your model Ferrari, B52 bomber or vaporetto, and little ones could be kept busy for hours.
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Mondadori
Spread over a couple of floors and planted in the heart of chic San Marco shopping, this is one of the country's leading book chains. After browsing, have a drink in the hip Bacaro Lounge, separated from the books by just a pane of glass.
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Mondonovo Maschere
One of Venice's master mask-makers, Guerrino Lovato, runs this higgledy-piggledy store, producing fine facial disguises for all and sundry, including, as he is not too bashful to point out, some of the models used by the late Stanley Kubrick for his last movie, Eyes Wide Shut .
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Monica Daniele
Ms Daniele is a hatter with a hint of madness. Hats pile up in crooked towers on the counter, behind the windows and in boxes on shelves. There's no room to swing a cat for all the hats: straw hats, floppy hats, fluffy hats, sun hats, berets and bonnets! And just to unnerve you a little, there hangs the odd example of the heavy woollen Venetian cape (that few Venetians wear anymore) known as the tabarro .
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Mori & Bozzi
These pumps aren't for frumps. Ladies, pop in here for fun footwear. Sandals to high heels, platforms to flats, you'll find all sorts of designs to wiggle your toes in.
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Murano Collezioni
One elegantly presented showroom showcases an assortment of fine glassware by three of Murano's most prestigious creators, Barovier & Toso, Venini and Carlo Moretti. The emphasis is on useful objects rather than florid artistic pieces. Prices are restrained but you pay for quality: A champagne flute can still set you back around €200 . If you only make one glass-shopping stop in Venice and want to be sure of quality, this should probably be it.
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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.
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Perle E Dintorni
Pick up handfuls of multicoloured glass beads from the baskets in the window and at the counter to make your own cheerful and affordable costume jewellery, or have them craft something for you. There is also ready-made stuff at this light-hearted store. Bead-making has a centuries-long history in Venice.
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Pescaria
Underneath a neo-Gothic roof built at the beginning of the 20th century, Pescaria (Fish Market)attracts a mixed clientele of housewives and restaurateurs in search of the finest ingredients for the day's menu. They've been selling fish here for 700 years.
