Lucerene
 

We are doing Treasurers of Austria, Italy and Switerland with Trafalgar. Anybody been on that trip. Any tips oin what to buy and where? Thanks.

Switzerland is known for chocolate, watches, and cow chatchkes.

Italy has terrific paper goods (stationary and notebooks), leather, pottery, and porcelain. Venice is famous for its glass.

Be careful bying cheese. Swiss are known for putting holes in it.

Iris

I always come home with a lot of Swiss chocolates. They are always very well appreciated when I give them away. I don't go expensive, I just buy the ones that are in the Switzerland scenes paper wrappers. You can certainly buy a lot fancier! Give me plain milk chocolate any day.

Another thing I always bring home is Caran D'Ache pens and refills. Every employee at our small business here at home writes with these pens and loves them. DH and I always come home with new colors and plenty of refills. You can buy designs in these pens that are what you would call souvenirs. They are really terrific writing instruments! The cost is about $12 for a pen.

I cannot get enough of the Swiss cheeses (holes or not, faina)... Wish I could bring home a suitcase full of it. Right now I like Gruyere and Appenzeller the best, but I seem to discover new varieties each trip.

I also like the Swiss embroidery goods. You know, table cloths, doilies, etc. They make lovely gifts.

From Italy, I usually bring home a bottle or two of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I also love Italian cheeses (Pecorino comes to mind). We always enjoy the Italian red wines when in-country. We don't try to bring bottles home, opting to drink it there! So many wonderful wines, too little time to try them all!

I've been to Austria a number of years ago but cannot recall what I brought home.

Do enjoy your trip, Iris!

Carol

Thanks for your reply. Any input on what to buy in Venice, Munich, Verona? Thanks.

Venice: glass, (gold) jewelry, and masks if you enjoy the latter.

Postcards for places where photography wasn't allowed or wouldn't come out well. (ex. church interiors or dark museums that don't allow flash)

My girlfriend asked me the same interesting shopping question before our trip and here's what I told her:
Munich - lederhosen & dirndl
Lucerne - cowbells & alphorn
Venice - haloween mask & glass chandelier
Salzburg - Von Trap souvenirs after the Sound of Music tour. The rest you can buy in the states for less.

I was in Lucerne in May. There are lots of shops, but not so many tourist shops. We had only two days there with one of them being a Sunday. On Saturday there was an open-air market throughout the main part of town--I believe it is every Saturday. Most shops were closed on Sunday. I did manage to pick up a kitchen magnet.