Shopping

I just realized I never posted on my shopping experiences which were many and successful. My bag was much heavier for the return trip.

Florence has great shopping. It was different from previous trips. Before the merchandise in the open markets was of a better quality than it is now. Most of the markets had the same thing and nothing really all that great. So there were not any really inexpensive finds on this trip. However, I still found plenty to buy and some great stores that I really enjoyed. It seemed like I came home with a sack everyday but I don’t think I was quite so bad.

I loved Perugia and the shopping there was very fun. The stores were fancy but friendly. They were much more welcoming than anyplace else I shopped. Primarily I bought chocolate (lots and lots of chocolate) but I also picked up a cashmere scarf and a necklace at the museum store. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed Perugia. Even without the chocolate festival it would have been a good vacation stop.

The shopping in Sam Gimignano was alright but more touristy. It did have the best Enotecas.

Milan was just a big city more window shopping than anything else. I did buy the shoes but until then I had not bought anything but a map. They did not have any specialty style shops everything was small boutique that sold a little of everything. There were some shoe stores and lingerie stores but otherwise just boutiques and surprisingly as many men’s shops as women.

There was one department store Coin (Milan and florence) which was generally similar in size to the domain’s Macy that sold everything. It was nothing fancy. If you found you needed something while you were there you could probably find a replacement at Coins but it looked pretty much like the clothes and stuff you see at home.

I did find one thing for my next trip. The stone mosaics. I first noticed the work in the Piti Palace. The tables were all these intricate designs of inlaid stones. There were also examples in the Palace Vecchio in the fancy cabinets. I came across the store just up from the Accademia where they are still doing this work. They have someone working on a project on the store and then samples of the stages to show how it all goes together. They had some beautiful pieces. Mainly small tile shaped pieces some framed some not. I almost bought one of the smaller ones that showed the duomo but thought I had spent enough already. Next trip I am going to buy it first.