Must-Buy Souvenirs

Hand-blown glass from the island's furnaces, from small pendants to sculptural pieces. Genuine work carries the Vetro Artistico Murano mark; most cheap trinkets in San Marco are imported.

Handkerchiefs, collars and table linen worked in the island's punto in aria stitch. True handmade pieces take weeks and are priced accordingly; machine-made copies fill the souvenir stalls.

Masks moulded and painted by hand in Dorsoduro workshops that still use traditional forms – the bauta, the moretta, the plague doctor. Some studios run short mask-painting classes.

Sheets, notebooks and boxes finished with hand-floated marbled patterns, a craft Venice took from Ottoman bookbinding. Light, flat and the easiest local thing to fit in a suitcase.

The bitter created in Venice in 1920 and the one locals actually put in their spritz. A bottle is cheaper and more Venetian than the orange brand everyone knows.