News & Expert Advice

Silverware and coffee makers: My best shore shopping experience. What’s yours?

What’s the best thing you ever bought during a shore excursion? Where was it made? Comment below!

Salami and Pasta shopping in Sorrento, Italy. © Randall Shirley

My partner and I recently completed a Mediterranean cruise onboard the Azamara Quest. Our favorite port was Sorrento, Italy—a place we almost stayed on the boat!

Of course, unless you take a ship-organized shore excursion, the quality of your shore time really depends on a combination of two things: the port itself, and the effort you put into it.

Italy is full of lovely towns that mix the modern world with old-world memories. Sorrento is yet another of them, but set atop a cliff face, about 100 feet above the sea. We chose to walk up a combination of stairs and sidewalks to get into the town, and while most of the other passengers and land-based tourists turned right at the top of the stairs, following their tourist maps into cozy alleyways filled with tourist traps, we wandered to the left, and quickly found ourselves away from the swarms of tourists that had maddened us during previous stops in Taormina and Dubrovnik.

Totally local experience: Coffee at Bar Paradise, Sorrento. © Randall Shirley

We enjoyed a great coffee/croissant experience at Bar Paradise, a place catering to bus and train drivers, bought a suitcase-full (no kidding) of regionally-made pasta at a very local grocer/salami shop with a super-friendly salami salesman, and stumbled our way into the Italian version of the Gap, called Piazza Italia. (For better or for worse, the actual Gap recently opened in Italy).

Then we happened into one of the most amazing shopping experiences either of us has ever had, anywhere: we met Umberto Esposito, at L’Argentario. A window display of cute Top Moka brand Italian coffee maker devices caught our eye, and we decided to price a dual-cup, stove-top espresso maker. Inside the not-large shop we were surrounded by all manner of upscale dishes and cutlery, as well as some fine china and pots and pans. We had no intention of buying a set of cutlery, but the gorgeous styling of Bugatti caught my eye, and once we began discussing pricing with Umberto, we knew we’d found possibly the best-ever souvenir of a trip (since we both love cooking and entertaining—the cutlery will be a great conversation piece at future meals).

The Espositos at L'Argentario, Sorrento, Italia. © Randall Shirley

But the best part of the experience was meeting a merchant who hasn’t sold out. We learned that his shop only sells items made in Italy—which is becoming increasingly rare. He told us that tourists often come in, see the price of some of his products, and challenge him that they’ve bought the same thing elsewhere for much less money. He challenges them back, asking them to show the bottom of their product where it inevitably says the new three most-common words in the English language: Made in China. (In Italy we often saw this written as “Made in PRC”).

Every time Umberto discovers that a supplier has moved production from Italy to one of the world’s factory countries, he stops carrying that product. We were delighted. While we are stuck buying plenty of Made in Somewhere-else product at home, we don’t travel with the hope of buying Chinese-made products as our souvenirs—unless we’re traveling in China. Several hundred Euros later, we are delighted to have paid a bit more, and come home with not only Italian design, but Italian craftsmanship. Oh, we bought the Top Moka coffee maker, too.

If Sorrento is in your travel plans—either as a cruise destination or land-based destination—I encourage you to stop by L’Argentario. Introduce yourself to Umberto, thank him for setting a higher bar. And buy something fabulously Italian for your home.

L’Argentario, Corso Italia, 205-207 Sorrento
Phone  081 877 3417
Email: largentario@alice.it

What’s the best thing you ever bought during a shore excursion? Where was it made?

Note: Reviewer sailed courtesy Azamara; shore experience at own expense. See our disclosure policy here.