i am traveling next week to family in pecina,italy. any ideas as to what type of things that i cold bring them from the u.s. that they are unable to get in italy? they live in the mountain area in aquila.

I have a friend in Umbria who always asks for practica things that she can't find there: heavy duty aluminum foil, good quality paper towels and the extra large bottles of Tylenol and Advil which are impossible to find in Italy and very expensive.

I would bring them some chocolate chip cookies (in Italy we have something slightly similar produced by Pavesi) but the american chocolate chip cookies with their macadamia versions are so good.

Grinisa's post reminded me something: when I went to the US last year a friend of mine who owns a craft shop in the village I live in (Italy), asked me if I could buy her as many freezer paper rolls as possible. The reason? she used the paper NOT to wrap meat and preserve it in the freezer but for her quilting appliques! She would iron a fabric cut out on the freezer paper and then on the quilt and voila'. In Italy we don't have freezer paper in rolls, you can get small pieces of it when you go to the butcher but you can't ask the butcher to give you this paper without meat... Anyway, to cut the story short, I brought back 2 75 feet rolls of Reynolds Freezer paper and now I get lots of discounts on my craft purchases!

I think the very BEST thing you could do is ask your friends what it is that they would like!!! Who would have guessed about heavy freezer paper for craft use? A "suprise" is not necessarily a good thing! In a situation like this-- they can't return it, they don't soon get another chance to have you bring something-- it would be far more considerate to ask how you can do something nice for them.