The 2024 Gift Guide for Italy-Lovers
/Italy becomes magic during the holidays.
Santas rowing down Venetian canals, lights strung from one medieval wall to another, enormous menorahs that span a whole piazza, a town tree hung with handmade ceramic balls—it’s hard not to feel the giddiness of childlike wonder.
Which is why gifts that spark an Italian holiday season can be so valued, especially for people already in love with Italy!
But…what to give? If you want creative, one-of-a-kind gifts, you’ve landed in the right place.
As a person who has now been to Italy more times than I can count, lived there for two years, and written about Italy for over a decade (with eleven books set in Italy, and counting), you can bet this list doesn’t include tourist schlock but gifts that will recall the real Italy.
From made-in-your-home to sent-from-Italy, you’re sure to find a winning gift for your friend who is infatuated with Italy. Or even just someone who loves being transported to someplace wonderful. And since you probably love Italy too (come on, who doesn’t?), giving these gifts will connect you to the merriness of the Italian holiday season.
Luggage Tags with Italy Images to spark wanderlust
Shutterfly makes it easy to create sturdy metal luggage tags with your favorite photo of Italy on one side and your loved one’s address on the other under (I used the heading “Homebase”, which I found rather clever).
Last year, I made a luggage tag for each of us (yes, even me. Don’t I love me? Yes, I do). I found photos I thought would be particularly meaningful, Keith’s tag showcases our Venetian gondola lesson. Mine has a photo of spritzes with a view at Bar Bonci in Spello, and I can tell you the bright orange spritzes, even on the diminutive tag, stand out on a luggage carousel.
How wonderful to remind your favorite Italophile of how well you know them every time they haul out their suitcase. Plus…bonus! They never have to fill out a luggage tag again.
Homemade Biscotti for Italy-Lovers
Making biscotti couldn’t be simpler with my recipe that you can adjust according to flavor preferences or even favorite regions of Italy (does your Italophile love the Piedmont region? Maybe opt for hazelnuts and chocolate. Sicily? How about some orange zest. Southern Italy? Perhaps spring for some pine nuts). Pop them in a festive tin and you’re all set.
If you want to up your game, you can pair the biscotti with a bag of your favorite coffee or a bottle of dessert wine, which you can again vary by regional affection—Sagrantino Passito for Umbria, Limoncello for Amalfi, Moscato d’Asti from Piedmont, sweet Marsala (rather than the dry version used to cook with) from Sicily. Though my personal (and vendetta-worthy) opinion is that the dessert wine that pairs best with biscotti is Vin Santo from Tuscany. Lucky for you, that’s also the easiest to find!
Italian Cookbooks as Guidebooks
Long ago I learned that the best way to learn about a place is by flipping through a good cookbook. Think about it—cookbooks tell you about landscape, about the people who have created recipes from the fruits of that landscape. They tell you about culture and traditions. They tell you what people eat in their homes, rather than what’s served to tourists in restaurants, from breakfast to lunch to dinner to—in the best cases—snacks.
Here are some of my current favorite Italian cookbooks, all specialized to pack a real punch.
Tasting Rome by Katie Parla: I bought Katie Parla’s cookbook after a visit to Rome and fell instantly in love.
She includes recipes for the very foods I adored in Rome—cacio e pepe supplì, filetti di baccalà, Roman pizza with its cracker thin crust, and even maritozzi, the cream filled buns which are having a moment.
I practically wanted to skip the rest of the trip just to get home and try my hand. I said practically! Katie has a new cookbook about the Italian islands, another good option!
Preserving Italy by Domenica Marchetti. Domenica has a range of cookbooks about Italian soups, vegetables, even biscotti (which could make a worthy companion to a gift of biscotti!), but my favorite of her works is Preserving Italy.
This is a different kind of cookbook, focusing on canning, curing, and bottling to preserve Italian flavors. I’m not a big preserver, and yet I find her book inspiring. She also includes recipes for those preserved products like pickled vegetable pizza and cookies filled with her rustic grape jam and baked whole trout with her citrus salt.
Domenica’s home is in Abruzzo, so she has central Italian sensibilities, which I relate to. Almost every meal she posts on Instagram (@Domenicacooks), I instantly want.
La Vita e Dolce by Letitia Clark. My sister told me about this book as we brainstormed menus for a dinner party. She described La Vita e Dolce as an Italian dessert book. To which I retorted saucily, “How many pages do you need to talk about panna cotta and tiramisu?” She laughed and mentioned the citrus, campari, and yogurt upside down cake. What now? I bought the book on Kindle because I needed it right then. I wound up cooking two of those cakes for that party (a candied clementine, fennel seed, and polenta cake and a roasted nut, amaretto, vanilla bean, and dark chocolate cake). They both rocked.
Letitia Clark has two other cookbooks. I can recommend Bitter Honey, recipes from her Sardinian home. Her newest work, Wild Figs and Fennel, is on my wish-list.
Gift Puzzle of Italian Wine Regions
For me, lounging around doing puzzles is a highlight of the holidays. So when Babbo Natale brought us a Water and Wines puzzle of Italy last year, you can imagine my delight. So much delight that I want to share the idea with you! Click the link for the Italy puzzle, but I encourage you to poke around because you may like a Whisky puzzle of Scotland for your brother who dreams of foggy Scottish shores, a map of Napa puzzle for your niece who got married in California’s wine country, or a cheese puzzle of France for your fromage -loving friend.
I am very finicky with my puzzles. In fact, I usually only buy Ravensburger with their unique “soft-click technology” (which always gets a good laugh in our house), and I found Water and Wines’ quality so high, I wound up ordering a few more. I may buy the Italian coffee culture puzzle for Keith this year, but don’t tell him.
Adopting a cat, a great gift for Italophile cat lovers
A gift for the cat-lover or philanthropist on your shopping list, why not adopt a cat from the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary? Such a worthy cause, the sanctuary takes in otherwise unadoptable cats—those who are blind or temperamental or have been mistreated. Sweet babies.
We adopted Jefferson for Gabe on his 13th birthday and delighted in the regular correspondence that reported his antics over the ruins of the theater where Caesar was assassinated.
How marvelous to get these word pictures of “our” blind cat cavorting and forming alliances and enemies, all while hearing stories about neighborhood happenings.
Jefferson sadly died last year and now we’ve “symbolically adopted” Bossanova, a cat with a neurological disorder that makes him shake and tumble.
The tales of the full lives these disabled cats lead is nothing short of astonishing. Can you imagine how meaningful this would be as a gift?
I stopped at the cat sanctuary two weeks ago, and though I didn’t see Bossanova, I spied other cats from the website and felt warm and happy to be supporting such a good cause.
Novel Pasta Makes a Fun Gift for an Italian Foodie
It's gotten easier and easier to find fun shaped pasta and yet few people think to buy a bag for themselves. Consider a pack of strozzapretti (a rustic, thick pasta from Umbria, often served with truffles or hearty sauces) or trofie (from Liguria and an excellent vehicle for pesto) or busiate (a corkscrew-shaped pasta from Sicily, usually paired with pesto alla trapanese, a local sauce made with almonds and tomatoes).
You can find all of these and more at the Bella Italia website, which also sells Italian products you might want to pair with the pasta like a bottle of good olive oil or a jar of anchovies. Or go for a windowsill Italian herb garden to keep the Italian flavors blooming.
A final pasta note—this last trip to Italy, I noticed the hip bars served cocktails with a ziti straw. Literally, the straw was a long piece of dried pasta (like in the photo with a spritz). This makes sense! It’s not plastic, but doesn't turn to mush in 12 seconds like a paper straw. You can order a box of ziti straws at that same Bella Italia site. The straws are a great gift on their own or paired with a bottle of Aperol or Campari.
Books Set in Italy Are Always Great Gifts
Listen, you come to an author site for gift ideas, you best believe you’ll find books on that list. But I won't only recommend my own bestselling memoir of living in Italy (though given how much the print version sells in November and December, it must make a great gift) or a set of books about my fictional town of Santa Lucia, where town drama first stops for a cup of espresso. Or even my Murder in an Italian Village series for your Italy-loving friend who thinks any book with a dead body is just a better book.
But enough about my books! I can also recommend the following books to transport your friend to la dolce vita. Or a darker version of Italy, whatever your friend prefers.
All the books I recommend (including my own, if I may be so bold) have gift-worthy covers to delight your Italy-loving friend. They feel like presents, in the richest sense of the word.
Don’t you wish there was a holiday where people just gave books, like how people in Iceland give each other books on Christmas Eve? Until we can mandate a new holiday, let’s give as many books during the season as we can. Support an author, delight a friend—everybody wins!
More Giftable Books for Your Italy Loving Friend
Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series offers readers a captivating glimpse into Venice through the eyes of its thoughtful, justice-seeking detective, Commissario Brunetti. Each mystery delves into the darker undercurrents of Venetian society, from political corruption to environmental crimes, all while highlighting the city’s unique beauty and culture. Rich with atmospheric details, sharp social commentary, and compelling characters, this series is perfect for Italophiles who enjoy intelligent, character-driven crime novels set against the backdrop of Venice’s timeless canals. The series begins with Death at La Fenice and if your friend falls in love with the worthy Commissario Brunetti, it’s nice to know there are another thirty books in the series.
Another option for your mystery-loving Italophile is the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri, about a policeman in Sicily. This option is especially good for friends who take language lessons or groove on the idea of reading a translated book by an Italian author. These books simply ooze Italy with footnotes to explain some of the “Italianisms”, including explanations of the highly regional foods. Montalbano, like all good Italians, loves to eat. You can get the paperback box set for $42.00 in the US. Quite a deal for all that intrigue!
Now let’s talk about stand-alone books for Italophiles:
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is a literary masterpiece set in a 14th-century Italian monastery, where a series of mysterious deaths occur. Blending historical fiction with murder mystery, the novel follows Brother William of Baskerville as he unravels clues hidden in ancient manuscripts and religious secrets. Rich with medieval history, philosophy, and theological debates, this novel is perfect for Italophiles who love a complex, thought-provoking story.
If your friend’s taste trends towards true crime, you might opt for The Monster of Florence. By Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, the novel is a gripping true crime story that explores one of Italy's most notorious unsolved mysteries.
Between 1968 and 1985, a serial killer terrorized the Tuscan countryside, brutally murdering couples in the hills around Florence. This book dives into the investigation, the media frenzy, and the cultural impact of the case, blending local history with a suspenseful narrative. A must-read for Italophiles who enjoy history, mystery, and the darker side of Italy’s past.
Having written a memoir, I’m a bit fussy about them. But I can recommend Extra Virgin, by Annie Hawes, with much appreciation. It’s the story of the author and her sister who visit Italy and then buy a small falling-down house in one of the olive groves of Liguria. With humor and warmth, Hawes shares her experience of adapting to the slow-paced, traditional lifestyle of the locals, learning the art of olive cultivation, and embracing Italian culture. Filled with vivid descriptions of Italian landscapes and characters, this book is perfect for Italophiles who enjoy heartwarming, lighthearted stories about life in rural Italy and the joy of living simply.
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King is a fascinating account of the construction of the dome atop Florence’s Santa Maria del Fiore, a feat that defied the architectural knowledge of its time. The book follows Filippo Brunelleschi, the genius behind the revolutionary design, as he navigates intense competition, technical challenges, and the politics of 15th-century Florence. Rich in history, engineering, and Renaissance culture, this book is perfect for Italophiles who are captivated by art, architecture, and the brilliance of Italy’s past innovators. I reread it while staying in Florence with a view of the dome and was surprised anew at how history can be even more exciting than fiction.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan is an inspiring World War II novel based on the true story of Pino Lella, a young Italian who becomes an unlikely hero. Set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Italy, Pino is drawn into the war when he helps Jews escape across the Alps, and later, as a spy within the German High Command. Filled with adventure, courage, and resilience, this novel is perfect for Italophiles who appreciate historical fiction that highlights Italy’s lesser-known heroes and its role in WWII history.
A Box of Delightful Gifts, Direct from Italy
I saved the splurgiest for last. After our pesto-making class at Nessun Dorma in Manarola (Cinque Terre) in 2021, I signed up for their emails. Even though I hadn’t planned to return (to which fate said haha and I went last week), I stayed on the mailing list as those little emails inject a jolt of Italian sunshine to even the most dismal Virginia day. Last year, I noticed that the email included some fabulous sounding boxes. I ordered Keith a gift and couldn't have been more delighted. The ordering process was simple, the gift arrived well packaged and in plenty of time, and what a feast! Olives and cookies and pesto and the trofie pasta I struggled to find in Charlottesville and even Sciacchetrà, the dessert wine of the region. They have all sorts of gift boxes. If your Italophile has a hankering for wine that is off the beaten track, or pasta with chestnut flour, or sauces like walnut sauce and red pesto sauce, and sweet cookies, I’d check out the box options at Nessun Dorma. They even sell a mortar and pestle like what we used in the class!
What did you think of this year’s Gift Guide? Do you have suggestions I didn’t include? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email, I’m always pleased with new ideas I can include next year! In the meantime, if you enjoyed this Gift Guide please share it!
And if you want more content like this in your e-mailbox, sign up for the Grapevine, my once-monthly newsletter filled with travel stories, recipes, book reviews, and giveaways. As a welcome gift, I’ll send you an e-copy of Santa Lucia, my bestselling novel set in Italy. Just think! In just a few moments, you can be whisked away to the flavors and mysteries of a medieval hill town.
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