Shopping – It’s Christmas Time?

The retail corporations in the US have decided that Christmas starts early this year. Oil and gas prices are up and this will cause an increase in our heating bills, leaving less disposable income. Since corporate America does not value our intellectual capacity they have decided to advertise their goods now so that we will spend our money before we get our first heating bill…

Just in case you want to take a trip to Italy to shop or just happen to already be there for other reasons I wanted to indicate a few alternatives.


Italy is the center of the fashion world. Many in the world may disagree, thinking that France holds that title, but I can assure you that Italy, in particular Milano, is the center of the world for clothes designers. In the early 80s I worked with a then little known, Gianni Versace; he had all of 6 people in his office in Milan. I was writing graphics software that would overlay different materials and designs onto a picture that had been captured by a camera. Today it is no big deal but then it was pretty leading edge stuff.

During this time I had the opportunity to meet and speak with various designers and attend numerous fashion shows. They are pretty wild!

In each city I have a store that specializes in something that I really liked, Milano for suits, Como for overcoats, Shoes just about anywhere, Shirts in Milano and Rome, Ties in Naples and Socks in Senigallia. This is not to say that each city does not have marvelous places for each one of these items just, that I have my own places, where I know the people that I like to shop. They take care of me very well and I think they will do the same for you.