Although a lot of people like to take home a gift after a visit to a new city, those not content with the evergreen box of chocolates and in search of something specifically linked to the place they have visited may sometimes find it difficult to know what to choose. So what are the products truly unique to Modena?

Foods are the local products easiest to find, and various companies from the area offer them in special gift packs. There is a choice of tortellini or zampone, cotechino, cappello da prete or the lesser known amaretti, particularly delicious macaroons. Parmesan cheese is available vacuum-packed from supermarkets, or in wedges freshly cut from the cheese for those who prefer to buy directly from the producer. Real balsamic vinegar is not available everywhere but can be found in gift packs from the city centre's best grocers. A number of specialist craft firms also sell the barrels used to mature the vinegar. The range of lambrusco on offer is endless; it's only a matter of personal taste and how much the visitor wishes to spend. There are two liqueurs native to Modena: nocino, with its strong flavour and digestive properties, and Sassolino, which used to be considered a ladies' liqueur and is now virtually only used in home-made sweets. Cherries preserved in spirits are easily found even without going to Vignola, which is also the home of the only confectioner's shop entitled to sell real "torta Barozzi", a rich chocolate and coffee cake. Parents might like to take their children a Panini sticker album from the city where they are actually produced. Although the GT cars produced locally are way out of reach for ordinary mortals, scale models or posters of them also make good gifts for the young.

On a more intellectual plane, the city's book shops offer a wealth of ideas, with volumes about Modena's artistic heritage, traditions and history produced by local publishers. Coffee-table books of photographs by the city's most famous photographers, Fontana and Zagaglia, make gifts of real prestige. For lovers of the Romanesque, a city-centre shop offers silver reproductions of the Months of the Year from the Porta della Pescheria, or the Tales of San Geminiano from the Porta dei Principi.