Special Edition: Italian Products
Curious things from small town farmacias to chain grocery stores
Greetings, friends! And welcome to Caroline Finds It: my new weekly newsletter where I reply to submissions from YOU for objects and products you need recommendations for.
Did you notice that it seemed like everyone was in Italy this summer? It was weird, wasn’t it? That somehow half of the culture-seekers of America choose the same vacation destination. With an eye roll, a chuckle and total coincidence, I was one of them. My friend Grace and I embarked on an epic road trip, years in the making, down the Tuscan coast to visit the otherworldly spectacle that is Niki de Saint Phalle’s Il Giardino dei Tarocchi in early August. And by another total coincidence, I’d planned my family’s Christmas for the east coast of Sicily before I knew The White Lotus was filming Season 2 there. Reflecting now, at the end of the year, I suppose it really was my Big Italian Year. Not just because I visited twice, or because I’ve been spending time learning the language for a couple of years, but because I settled into the comfort of knowing that I’ve discovered my place. Do you have a place that is vividly cemented in your mind as the fantasy place you’d run away to? For me, that is an impossibly old house with a garden full of old fruit trees in a quaint town in Italy. A place that feels like a beacon of discovery but also safe and familiar.
My favorite thing about Italy is the shopping. The outdoor markets have the best of everything this agriculturally rich nation has to offer, and other staples like table linens, white cotton underwear and “nonna knives”. The cities are full of beautiful designer shops that people shop at not just because they’re cool or fancy, but because Italians value quality. In the grocery store, you’ll find gorgeous packaging and Italy-specific curiosities, and the farmacias often have a unique selection of toothpaste flavors like Sicilian lemon, or anise. One thing I like to seek out when travelling are extremely culture-specific specialty shops like Italy’s coletelleries, which are shops that sell all manners of sharp objects. Extremely niche cooking knives, garden shears, scissors for trimming your mustache. They’re wonderful places.
I can’t fly us all to Italy on a shopping tour, but I do have 9 of my favorite Italian things to share, all of which can be found online if you wish to go on a little adventure from the comfort of your own home.
Pocket Coffee - This is something I can’t stop talking about because it is just so funny to me. Pocket Coffee is a Ferraro product that has a cult following, and seasonal availability. It’s a chocolate that’s filled with about 1/3 of a shot of liquid espresso. Not an espresso flavored syrup — actual liquid espresso that will cause a comical splatter onto your shirt if you try to bite it in half. I was initially drawn to Pocket Coffee for its typeface, but have since fallen in love with it as a delicious little jolt of energy. They’re only available from October-April because it’s HOT in Italy in the summer, and Pocket Coffee is not a treat that’d survive melting. Ask for it at your local Italian grocery, or order from a reputable one online.
Dentifrico Delle 7 Erbe - Italy is the land of Marvis, which is available even at the most regular of shop at a fraction its US cost, but there’s another toothpaste I implore you to hunt for on your next trip. Dentifrico Delle 7 Erbe is a toothpaste with a uniquely refreshing herbal flavor that comes from 7 herbs chosen to their antibacterial and oral health properties: sage, icelandic lichen, licorice, mint, mallow, thyme, yarrow. I’ve never tried anything like it. You’ll have the best luck finding it at a small farmacia in northern Italy. Another non-Marvis brand to keep an eye out for is Pasta del Capitano, who also have their own herbal toothpaste.
Tassoni Cedrata - Cedrata is a drink make from Citron, (or Cedro in Italian). Have you ever tried a citron? It looks like a very large lumpy lemon that has an extraordinarily fragrant rind, but very little fruit inside. It’s mostly used for flavoring things or eaten sliced with sugar or in a salad and is considered to be one of the oldest cultivars of citrus fruit. My favorite way to taste it is in the form of Tassoni Cedrata, which is a slightly sour, not too sweet soda that’s especially refreshing on a hot day. Look for it carefully — the bottle doesn’t have a label, just a cap with ingredients on it and an imprint on the bottle.
Dal Negro Cards - Italy’s preeminent playing card maker is Dal Negro, which is significant because Italian playing cards are unlike a standard 52 card deck we know. Instead, they have 40 cards (lacking the 8s, 9s, and 10s) and illustrations that vary slightly based on the region that they’re made for. 16 different regions have a deck made just for them, with beautifully illustrated iconography that’s specific to its own culture. There are three main Italian card games that you play with this kind of deck: Briscola, Scopa and Tresette. My family learned Briscola, which is a fun and easy trick-taking game for up to 6 players. Dal Degro also makes lovely and traditional tarot decks (which is a less taboo/witchy thing in Italian culture) and many other types of games for all ages.
Edizioni Precarie Notebooks - I had the pleasure of visiting my friends at Fratelli Bonvini in Milan this year, which is quite possibly my favorite stationery shop in the whole world. They introduced me to Edizioni Precarie, which is a Palermo-based stationery shop that makes notebooks and letter sets out of the papers used for wrapping food products in historic Sicilian markets. They’re works of art that are made by hand, and contain papers that you can write on but are also printed in the charming graphics of local butchers, fruit vendors, fish shops or pastry shops.
Fabbri Amarena Cherries - You’ll see these in every Italian grocery store in the jam/preserves section for good reason. Fabbri’s Amarena cherries are semi-candied wild cherries made from a 100-year old family recipe, beloved for use in desserts, cocktails, or simply for eating on their own. They come in many forms, the best of which is a ceramic jar which is perfect for re-using to store tiny treasures. I love to pop a couple in a seltzer and stir in a spoonful of the syrup.
L’Erbolario The Colours of the Vegetable Garden Face Cream - In any town in Italy you’ll find an erboristeria, which are herbalist shops that sells a variety of medicinal herbs and one very Italian brand of wellness, skincare and fragrance products. L’Erbolario is Italy’s most popular natural beauty brand and makers of my holy grail moisturizer. Grace and I both purchased a face cream from the brand’s The Colors of the Vegetable Garden line this summer for our respective skin types and were surprised by how effective, non-greasy, gentle and inexpensive they are. As a person with very sensitive, congested skin and a fear of the petri-dish nature of products in jars, the Cucumber/Apple/Rocket pump bottle face cream suits me perfectly and is something I’ll plan on buying in bulk and storing in my fridge for the foreseeable future.
Carta Aromatica d’Eritrea Incense Papers - Italy’s equivalent to France’s Papier d’Armenie, these papers have been around since 1927 and work by folding a sheet like an accordian and lighting the end to release the over 30 essential oils and resins they’re scented with. They smell strong, warm and musky and are terrific for disguising odors. You can find them in the cleaning section of a specialty or natural grocery store in Italy.
Bonomelli Filtrofiore Chamomille Tea - When I first moved to New York, I bought a box of this tea at my neighborhood Italian grocer because I loved the design of the box. What I discovered is that it’s actually the very best whole-flower chamomile tea around and has a much earthier, deeper flavor than the chamomile I was used to. Bonomelli chamomile is a nighttime staple in Italy and comes in many forms, though the filtrofiore variety is by far the best, and the only one that features the whole in-tact flower top.
And with this, I leave you to reflect on the adventures you’ve had in 2022 and to dream of the ones to come in 2023. May you always find delight in the objects you surround yourself with.
Is there a product you’re looking for? Submit your request here. See you next Friday for fresh recommendations! xo Caroline
P.S. For a similar round up of suitcase-worthy British products, check out this post from earlier this year! Want to see details from my whole trip? I’ve got it all saved to the highlights on my Instagram @ladygraphite.
I’ll be visiting Italy in early 2023 and this post has me very excited about all the new (and now some familiar) finds I may come across. Thank you Caroline!