If you want to shop in Rome, there are endless choices of places for you to go, from the famous designer labels in Italian fashion that are located in the more elegant city streets to the outlets outside the city and the old craftsmen’s shops not forgetting of course, the flea markets.
The most famous shopping streets in Rome are three parallel streets that all meet up with Via del Corso, starting from Piazza Di Spagna or near there: Via Condotti, Via Borgognona and Via Frattina. The most famous of the three is Via Condotti, which takes its name from the channels that carried water to the Agrippa thermal spa baths. Today it is one of the most elegant streets in the world, lined with the most famous of shops with fashion labels such as Bulgari, who opened his "atelier" here in 1905, Cartier, Hermés, Ferragamo and Battistoni, a historical Roman atelier of male fashion that was a favorite of the Duke of Windsor.
In Via Borgognona there are other famous names such as Fendi, Ferré, Laura Biagiotti, “the queen of cashmere" and Gai Mattiolo, a young Roman fashion designer who has recently entered the elite of famous designer labels.
Finally, in Via Frattina, there are the ateliers of Versace, Tiffany and Byblos.
Many streets in the old city center are still full of traditional Roman craftsmen’s shops such as old-style carpenters. Expert restorers are still concentrated in Via dei Cappellari. Via dei Sediari has been famous for hundreds of years for furniture and other household objects made out of wickerwork.
The expert wrought iron forgers’ laboratories can be found in Via degli Orsini. Via Santa Dorotea is the place to go for vases and other painted ceramic pieces. In Via dei Gigli d'Oro you will find reproductions of antique mosaics. Rome’s antique shops are located in Via dei Coronari, Via Giulia, Via Margutta, Via del Babuino and Via del Pellegrino.
We start in the heart of the luxury shopping area in Milan: Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga and Via Sant'Andrea, elegant streets that together with Via Manzoni, Via Borgospesso and Via Santo Spirito are the outer limits of the famous Fashion Quadrilatero. This area contains the most prestigious boutiques and showrooms in the world. In this square area, that is very expensive, luxury is the true protagonist. Dazzling jewels created by the most famous name, clothes and accessories to die for, to be owned and flaunted, shoes that are works of art. Everything reeks of ostentation and the splendor of a chic, fashionable lifestyle. Many tourists visit the showrooms and leave full of parcels, because Italian fashion continues to attract and fascinate the whole world, and Milan is the most representative symbol of all this.
Let’s start from the most famous of all the streets of fashion: Via Montenapoleone. This is where you can find, amongst others, the atelier-showrooms of: Gucci, Versace, Fratelli Rossetti, Salvatore Ferragamo, Loro Piana, Etro, Luis Vuitton, Prada, Valentino, Cartier and Tanino Crisci.
In Via Sant'Andrea, a street that crosses Via Montenapoleone you will find: Chanel, Armani, Fendi, Moschino, Cesare Paciotti, Hermés, Kenzo, Prada and Trussardi. Via Sant'Andrea crosses the famous Via della Spiga, where you can enjoy the shop windows at: D&G, Sergio Rossi, Krizia, Tod's, Genny, Prada, Gianfranco Ferré, Bottega Veneta, Bulgari and Chopard.
The equally elegant Via Manzoni is home to Spazio Armani at no. 31. This is the Giorgio Armani multi-concept store where you can admire the Emporio Armani showrooms, Armani casa, and Armani fiori. You can also sip an aperitif in the Emporio Armani Cafè, or spend the evening at the restaurant Nobu, with a dinner by the best Japanese chef to emerge in the last 10 years: Nobuyuki Matsuhisa who opened this chain of restaurants together with Robert de Niro.
For more affordable purchases, there are four important streets in Milan which are almost entirely dedicated to shopping: Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Corso Buenos Aires, Via Torino and Corso di Porta Ticinese.
Corso Vittorio Emanuele links Piazza Duomo with Piazza San Babila. It begins with the Rinascente, the monument to Milanese shopping that takes its name from Gabriele d'Annunzio. In Corso Vittorio Emanuele there are sophisticated label shops, such as Moreschi, Max Mara, Bruno Magli and Pollini, but there are also more popular labels such as H&M, Zara and Furla.
Corso Buenos Aires, that is one of the longest streets in Europe, connects Porta Venezia to Piazzale Loreto, and is even more commercial: here you can find Timberland, Mandarina Duck, Kookai, Benetton and Nara Camice.
In Via Torino which stretches between the Duomo and Corso di Porta Ticinese, the average shopper’s age is much lower and the casual style is sportier, with Camper, Foot Looker, and Energy shops all here.
The nearer you get to the Navigli area, which is the temple of street-style, the more the shop scenario changes. Corso di Porta Ticinese, a continuation of Via Torino that takes you right up to Piazza XXIV Maggio, it is the right place for those “alternative” purchases: Custo-Barcellona, Miss Sixteen, Diesel, Gas and Fornarina stand alongside second-hand clothes shops, shops with bizarre objects for the home, handmade clothes and accessory stores made from silk and other precious materials.
Milan also has some interesting markets. Here are just two of the most interesting and characteristic:
Pisan craft is renowned for leather goods, terracotta, shoes, wooden furniture and food. You will find Piazza delle Vettovaglie in the heart of the medieval city. It is surrounded by an elegant sixteenth-century portico, which has always been the location of a colorful daily market. As well as the stalls in the square, the surrounding picturesque alleys offer the possibility of buying renowned Pisan specialties. Crossing Via delle Colonne you will arrive in Borgo Stretto, one of the most picturesque streets in the city, with wonderful porticos. It is the heart of shopping in Pisa. You can then cross Mezzo Bridge and continue on to Corso Italia, another great shopping address in Pisa.
Each second weekend of the month, except July and August, the streets around Piazza dei Cavalieri become a huge open market. The Antiques Market in Pisa is one of the most interesting in Italy because Pisa is home to plenty of furniture manufacturers, shops and restorers.
Florence has an ancient tradition of craftwork, once upon a time, each area of the city was characterized by a certain type of work, each controlled by the powerful Corporazione delle Arti: sculptors’ laboratories, leather goods makers, goldsmiths and blacksmiths. The corporations were based on strict rules and only the legitimate children of a member could join the profession. In this way, art and techniques have been handed down through the generations to the present day. Some old stores are still more or less in tact, such as the Antica Officina di Santa Maria Novella, one of the oldest pharmacies in the world, where it is possible to buy essences and perfumes made to formulas that were created in the sixteenth century for Caterina de' Medici, and liqueurs that are still made today following the antique formula used by the Dominican monks.
When walking along the Ponte Vecchio you can see the famous Florentine goldsmiths’ shops, while the handmade- shoe makers are spread around the city. This Florentine tradition was made famous by Salvatore Ferragamo, shoemaker to the stars, whose creations can be admired in the museum carrying his name.
Whoever is planning a trip to Florence cannot forget its thriving food and wine culture. If you want to buy local products, there is no end of choice: tasty cheeses and sought-after salami attract food-lovers from the delicatessen shop windows; it is possible to taste and buy refined wines and fine extra-virgin oils in the many wine-cellars around the city. Don’t miss out on a trip to San Lorenzo Market, located inside the splendid liberty-style building.
If you want to buy some typical, the ideal thing to do is to walk around the Quartieri Spagnoli: this area still has the highest number of old craftsmen’s shops. The sophisticated, expensive Capodimonte porcelain, cameos, and gouaches are particularly famous. The latter are small paintings that represent the most charming and characteristic Neapolitan views, which date back to the eighteenth century, when the first visitors wanted to take away a souvenir of the city.
Naples is also tied to the traditions of the tooling of leather goods, and items in gold and silver.
If you are interested in buying the famous nativity scene figurines made in terracotta, the best place to go is Via San Gregorio Armeno, here you can find all types of hand crafted figurines.
All the great names of “Made in Italy” fashion can instead be found in the elegant area near the Riviera di Chiaia that includes Via Poerio, Piazza dei Martiri, Via Calabritto, Via dei Mille and Via Filangeri. There is a historical shop for Neapolitan male fashion in Piazza Vittoria, Marinella. It has been possible to buy shirts, pullovers, foulards and, ties in this shop since 1914. Some of the shop’s most loyal customers were Luchino Visconti and Aristotele Onassis.
Venice is a true paradise for shopping fans, you can find anything and everything in Venice, from souvenir shops with Carnival masks and Murano glass items, to the most luxurious high fashion boutiques. The glass objects are made in the kilns on the island of Murano by master glass blowers, this is a very old tradition. They are made using techniques that have been handed down over the centuries. The many glassworks in Venice and Murano offer any type of objects, for all tastes and wallets; there are Venini lamps and ashtrays, vases and small colored animals. with regards to jewelry, one popular souvenir is la murrina: this is a small round pendant in colored glass with spiral or flower patterns that is hung on a chain around your neck. As well as the traditional jewelers’ shops in Venice there are also some shops that sell necklaces made with colored Venetian glass pearls, that can sometimes be bought loose too so that you can use them to make some personalized jewelry.
While walking through the streets and lanes of Venice, you will also see a large number of mask shops. This is another popular craft item in Venice which are made in terracotta or in pottery.
If you want to take some food home as a souvenir, you can buy some packages of typical Venetian sweets, such as the Zaeti that can be bought in one of the many cake shops in Venice.
For those who like to do famous name shopping can go on a tour of the fashion streets, the most important being the famous Mercerie: this is Venice’s main shopping street that connects Piazza San Marco to Rialto and where you can find boutiques such as Max Mara, Sergio Rossi, Cartier, Gucci, Krizia, Louis Vuitton and many others. Calle XXII Marzo is also well worth a visti: here you can find Bulgari, Bruno Magli, Versace, Damiani.