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Shopping
Il Mercato di Piazza Verdi
When: Fourth Sunday of the month The Piazza Verdi market is a good place to snap up antique items for the home, like ceramics, glassware, and assorted quality bric-a-brac.
Shopping
Olio & Convivium
Swing by this epicurean hot spot to pick up gifts for your foodie friends. The shop offers a well-edited array of Tuscan wines, jars of olives, buttery cookies—even cases filled with elegant bottles of aged balsamic vinegar. If you want to stop and snack, there's a great on-site cafe.
Shopping
Vestri
The heady smell of rich artisanal chocolate literally beckons you into this tiny storefront. Stop and sample a rich chili-flecked or coffee truffle, then snap up a package of cocoa-infused pasta ($6).
Shopping
Kouki
With the dusty feel of a wine cellar, this tiny shop is crammed with colorful drinking vessels from Syria and Morocco (none cost more than $10), and a profusion of inexpensive chandeliers that look like grape clusters.
Shopping
Tokyu Hands
One of the best-known stores in Tokyo, this seven-level behemoth sells a little of everything, from wrapping paper to kitchen utensils. From Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood store listing.
Shopping
Sleeping Forest
Slices of tree trunks pave the floor, giant stumps serve as display tables, and lush fake elms tower over shoppers as they consider items with a handcrafted feel. From Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood store listing.
Shopping
P.O.S.H.
When he was working as a flight attendant, Karl Sorensen regularly got marooned on European layovers; to pass the time, he poked around flea markets. Eventually he fell in with the antique trade, and with the help of partner Steve Weigel, P.O.S.H. was born. From Chicago's Old Town/Gold Coast/River North neighborhood store listing.
Shopping
Hejfina
When Heiji Choy-Black opened her iconoclastic store—a Lucky favorite—back in 2004, there was nothing like it in town. She took a chance on esoteric, then-unknown lines, and her indie-centric focus has not wavered. From Chicago's Bucktown/Wicker Park/Ukranian Village neighborhood store listing.
Shopping
Sprout Home
Dedicated to unusual foliage and well-designed accoutrements used to nurture them (curvy glazed vessels, minimalist steel watering cans); it also offers a range of outdoor-themed goods, like buried-wood platters and blown-glass bird feeders. From Chicago's Bucktown/Wicker Park/Ukranian Village neighborhood store listing.
Shopping
Willow
Housed in a refurbished neighborhood watering hole, Willow is warm, inviting, and full of decorative objects with a vintage undercurrent—handcarved-owl bookends, Sarah Cihat rehabilitated dishware, vases that resemble tiny motor homes, and crayon-bright melamine lunch trays. From Chicago's Bucktown/Wicker Park/Ukranian Village neighborhood store listing.
