One of the less reported splendours of visiting Italy is the continued survival there of family retailers operating from small highly specialist shops. I’m not going to bore everyone with a massive list of recommendations – just keep your eyes open away from the main tourist traps! You will find pen shops, paper shops, bag shops, shops that will mend your umbrella….as well as the better-publicised salumerie where you can buy all the ‘trendy’ stuff from your fashionable Italian cookery book. (Stuff the Italians have been cooking with as a matter of course for generations.) If you can’t resist the prosciutto, pancetta or the fresh pasta (and why would you?) a worthwhile tip is that Italians buy in etti, a unit of 100 grammes (about a quarter of a pound, for fellow unmetricates). Thus un etto di prosciutto crudo will make two people a decent snack.
There is one place which you should visit if you happen to find yourself in Florence and looking for a decent present. This is not cheap, by the way! It’s called the Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella and is what our ancestors would have called an apothecary. They make their own fragrances and bath oils, sold from premises which have clearly not changed in living memory…the shop on its own is worth the trip even if you don’t buy anything. Address; via della Scala 16, near the main station.
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