Souvenirs from Italy - detailed practical tips

The Souvenir Diaries. This post is the first in a series where I expand on my favourite things to pick while travelling. Take them back home as souvenirs for yourself or friends and family to enjoy after your trip! First stop – Italy.

Supermarkets hide some really good (and cheap) local products. I like to try them on my trips or – for a little taste of a past holiday – back at home. They may not be as fresh as stuff on the market, but the variety can be greater. Also, because supermarkets are more ubiquitous you will probably have an easier time finding one.

There are two main types of grocery stores in Italy – bigger ones called supermercati, and smaller ones called alimentari. If you particularly enjoy food shopping, I recommend that you set aside at least 2 hours to visit a hypermercato – a giant supermarket. While you won’t get any meaningful social interactions per se, it’s a good way to do some souvenir shopping at scale. Still, I would say it takes at least 2 hours to walk around and choose products at leisure. The actual stores tend to be physically big so walking does take time. In addition, if you are not familiar with the layout, it will take even longer to figure out what is located where. On the plus side, you do get a really varied selection of most products. In my experience, even regular-sized supermercati will often have a very good selection, though.

INNUMERABLE VARIETIES OF CHEESE

If you travel during colder weather, and you have a fridge at your last accommodation, you could even bring some cheese back home for tasting. Like this curious big round of caciotta: cave-aged camembert-like soft cheese. Don’t be repelled by the smell and the funky-looking rind – once you pare it, the inside is soft and creamy, with a mild neutral taste and aroma. Just cut out whatever looks funky to you. As a last resort, even if you don’t like the taste, don’t throw it away but consider using it for a sauce or fondue. Combined with seasonings or other ingredients, you may discover you enjoy it after all (however, do pare the rind well in all cases).

Italian specialty cheese caciotta — A big delicious round of Italian caciotta cheese. Yes, I got it at 40% discount since I knew I would be eating it immediately. This one is not even artisanal, the Zanetti company is a pretty big producer.

Italian caciotta cheese wheel appearance inside — Cross section of the caciotta wheel. Less scary right?

FLAVOURED OR TEXTURED CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is always good as a souvenir or gift – there are some great/intriguing local and seasonal flavours to try out, for example, lemon and red pepper, or pear and cinnamon. I often do not like all of the flavours I buy, only some. However, the tasting always ends up being an interesting experience. Depending on your degree of sweet tooth, you could choose a bunch of chocolates to create your very own tasting boards.

a selection of flavoured or pure Italian chocolates — A variety of (flavoured) Italian chocolates. Pear actually does make so much sense given the classical combination of a pear-chocolate tart. Yet surprisingly, I’ve never seen it elsewhere. (This specific one did not jibe with my taste though – maybe it was the added cinnamon). The dark chocolate thins called sfoglie are regular 70% chocolate but the texture is great as they melt right on your tongue. I highly recommend them for dark chocolate lovers. They can also be used for easy and elegant desert/drinks decorations!

LOCAL PASTA AND GRAINS

Pasta could also be great to take back home for tasting or gifting but it can be quite bulky, and some varieties are fragile. I like to look for sturdy and “rare” shaped pasta varieties like zitti as well as pasta from local grains like farro, often prepared in a traditional way (casting, drying). You can enjoy the different texture with a variety of your favourite sauces.

Italian artisanal pasta and local grains — Some of the Italian pasta and grains I picked on a trip. The farro pasta tastes really good (similar to udon noodles). I stock up on grains, especially local ones like these produced in Umbria, an Italian province.

HONEY, SPREADS, AND JAMS

Jams, spreads and honey are long-lasting treats to take back. One drawback is that they are usually packed in glass jars which do add extra weight. On the other hand, the jars can be reused (some ideas: storage, candle making, vases/flower pots). Smaller sample-sized jars could be an option too, depending on your baggage priorities. Pro tip: do not pack them in your carry-on bag as they are/may be considered liquids. If the package exceeds 100 ml they’ll have your throw it away. And you will end up having to eat it at the airport in one go. (I never had to do this personally but I think I’d rather eat a jar of honey right there and then than let it go to waste…)

Italian sweet spreads, eucalyptus honey, hazelnut spread, — Some suggestions – Eucalyptus honey and hazelnut spread, similar to Nutella but with sunflower oil instead of palm oil, without dried milk powder, and organic. I actually have come up with a better super easy home-made version in the meantime that I’ll post some other time, but this one tastes nice too.

DRY INGREDIENTS

Specialty and local dry ingredients like sun dried tomatoes or porcini mushrooms are lightweight and can be easily used in many ways. Locally gathered herbs are also great if you can find small packages (some herbs tend to be sold in giant packages in Italy). Just make sure you look at the origin – I once accidentally bought organic oregano from… Peru. I only realised my mistake much later back home. So do look for a local origin – most products list their origin as they are supposed to by EU law. Oregano on the stem from Sicily has a pretty unique taste, and is fun to use – just make sure you pack it gently among clothes and maybe in an extra bag as it might shed in your luggage.

Italian dried specialty foods, cherry sun-dried tomatoes , dried porcini mushrooms — Some lightweight local dried foods – cherry sun-dried tomatoes, and porcini mushrooms. They may seem expensive but last long. My only annoyance is that I prefer buying locally gathered mushrooms, and they often do not indicate the origin on the package. Even if it says “packed in Italy” the mushrooms could be from anywhere. I once saw morel mushrooms in Switzerland that were from India of all places – not quite local.

SWEET COOKIES AND CANDY

Cookies and candy are lightweight and if you buy a variety of them you can repack them as a nice selection for gifts, or just as treats for self-consumption… ahem. My advice is to look for cookies with few ingredients and those not using mass produced fats like palm oil (senza olio di palma). In my opinion, these tend to taste better as you can better recognise the good quality of the ingredients. Even some of the mass-produced cookies in Italy taste very good. There’s also usually a good selection of lactose-free products, too.

Italian chocolate cocoa flavoured almond cookies — Some chocolate/cocoa flavoured Italian cookies – both hard and soft. Buy a good selection of (small) packs and you can make your own “platter” (see photo below).

My personal favourite are jelly gummy candies – fruit flavoured, especially citrus-flavoured (agli argumi). They are usually made with fruit juice, not just flavouring, and are too easy to eat in one go. Hard candy with liquid Lavazza filing is another personal favourite of mine – I like to have these as small portions of lightweight caffeine on a hike in the mountains or on cold winter day walk, they are very energising.

Italian cookies from Aosta, tegole valdostane, Italian jelly gummies candy, citrus flavoured, gelatine agli argumi — Another type of cookies called tegole – plain very thin crispy vanilla, a specialty from the mountainous Aosta valley region on the Alpine border with France. From the opposite end of Italy, the small citrus jelly candies shaped like citrus slices are the best, short of actual candied citrus peel. The flavour comes from fruit juice – orange, lemon, and tangerine – the last one with a very distinctive flavour. Not healthy of course, but a good flavour addition to a cookie platter (see the platter a bit further below).

SAVOURY BISCUITS

Savoury biscuits and cookies are as great as the sweet versions – a traditional variety I like a lot are the taralli – with fennel seeds, or just plain. They come in round and long shapes but the taste is the same. For the original taste, check that the ingredients include mostly/only olive oil – not vegetable one. Most likely they will also contain white wine, too (Note, since they are baked, any alcohol would have evaporated). Having white wine among the ingredients is a good way to tell the recipe/product is following the authentic recipe. Cookies with cheese or pizza-flavoured can be great too. I prefer small packages to try out, but I would buy big packages of stuff I’m sure I would like or have tried previously.

savoury Italian biscuits taralli fennel seeds, cheese biscuits — Some savoury Italian biscuits – on the left-hand side is a package of the long version of the taralli (taralli lunghi) with fennel seeds, the right ones are cheesy with caciocavallo – more like short bread cookies.

Italian cookies souvenirs, platter, selection, sweets, savoury, food gift ideas, local, shopping, Italy — An example of a platter you can gather from all the above cookies – mixed sweet and savoury. (Just make sure to transfer the crispy ones to airtight containers once opened.)

COSMETICS – THINK SOAP

Outside of the food realm, though overlooked as such, Italian bar soap makes for a really nice souvenir. Stores stock innumerable scents – for example, lettuce or tomato, and the quality is also quite good. There are mostly no off-putting crazy perfumes involved. Moreover, the shapes of the bars and the packaging itself are just beautifully designed. Last but not least, soap bars are definitely cheap – usually 1 to 2 Euro per bar. They are often made following a traditional (vegetable oil) recipe too. I don’t believe I’ve seen most of these often exported outside of Italy either – so they is quite a unique item.

Italian artisanal vegetable soap, souvenirs, gift ideas, Italian products, souvenirs, Italian cosmetics — Beautiful and nice-smelling Italian vegetable soap bars. Every grocery store will have some local selection so be sure to check it out. These scents are orange blossom with olive oil and calendula, pomegranate, and lettuce with borage oil.

Italian pomegranate vegetable soap bar artisanal, gift ideas, souvenirs, Italian cosmetics, shopping, local products — Beautiful design of the bar and the package – this one is made in Florence.

Italian artisanal soap packaging, gift ideas, packaging design, graphic design, Italian products, shopping, local products — The package design deserves a photo even from the side. These look so nice packed together for a gift.

MORE IDEAS FOR OTHER COUNTRIES

I plan to write a few more interspersed posts with my favourite souvenir ideas for other countries, like Japan, Holland, Portugal, the UK, Germany etc. Hopefully, you find this information useful, and get a chance to explore a supermarket and try these products out.

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