I have put together a sort of last minute visit to Italy at the end of the month.
This time I will be availing upon the kindness of friends for the entire visit. One week in Rome, a week in Florence and rounding out the trip with a week near Bergamo. As a thank you I would like to bring a gift to each of my hosts and I pretty much have everything figured out.
My last hosts, however, leave me stumped as to what to bring to their 7 year old son. Admittedly, I am out of touch with what todays youth would appreciate even if kids are the same the world over. (I wouldn't know what to get for a 7yr old here either) But I wondered if anyone had a suggestion not only about what a little guy might like but something from America would be nice too.
Any ideas?

You may want to check out this topic in our Frequently Asked Questions section:

Gifts to Bring

There are some decent ideas there. For a young boy, I'd go w/ sports stuff or a metal/model car of a decidely American vehicle (e.g., mustang, corvette).

Where are you from? Just to have an idea of what you can find.

Hi Gloria,
I am from Michigan.........not a real big tourist draw here so I am stumped.
I have considered the ball cap and t-shirt option and Kim's post about a model car seem good (I thought I would look for a model of my own car - made in the motor city). I even thought about a small bag of goodies but can't come up with enough things that you can't find there.....pop rocks, etc... Any suggestions?

Hi!

there are many things that you can find in the States that we cannot find in Italy.

Last time we were in North America we brought back to our nephews (our niece was too young back then) Jelly Belly, fudge, cereals of different types, chips Ahoy, some baseball related gadgets, some Shreck related stuff.

In the States you usually already have gadgets for movies when they haven't reached Italy yet, like Star Wars gadgets, they will soon be here, every kid will love tehm, but we don't have them yet.
Anything related to already popular cartoons or movies will also be loved.

As for food, all those things cannot be found here and children usually love them, even they are not too healthy. But who cares for once!?

The other thing they loved was Pop Tarts and Jello. Or pancake mix with different things to put on them.

Not to mention chips with different flavours and those microwave popcorn bags: very rare in Italy.

JELL-O Yes..........I had forgotten all about Jell-o. My exchange student went home with about 20 boxes of Jell-o in December. I wanted to make a box of hodge-podge stuff. Today I bought an American football and some sort of "transformer-dragon-light up thing" It's been so long since I bought toys I really have no clue what's going on. I did get a few candy goodies too and some pop corn.

It really had not dawned on me about the movie toys. I know the movies come out here first so a toy of some sort from the soon-to-be-released Italian version would be popular, wouldn't it? Great Idea! So --- Star Wars is the "waited for" movie in Italy right now???

Eh well, you can tell that we have three children running around! We have three nephews (7, 4 and 2) and a niece (2).
We are well trained in looking for presents!!

Yes, Star Wars is the "waited for" movie... maybe more for grown up kids like us than for young children who haven't grown up with the Star Wars story.

The new Harry Potter movie is really waited for too.
But I think it hasn't come out anywhere yet, has it?

quote:

The new Harry Potter movie is really waited for too.
But I think it hasn't come out anywhere yet, has it?

It's scheduled for November but the 6th book will be out in July. I like the Star Wars idea too.

Two major national pastimes in Italy are football (soccer) and Formula 1. Since you will be in Italy for some time before your last stop, find out if the 7 year old (or his father) has a favorite team - or you can buy him anything with Ferrari on it!

As of a mother of a six year old who has seven year old friends. I vote for Legos with a Star Wars theme. They all love Star Wars and they all love Legos. Boys just love to build things! And you can find these right now EVERYWHERE! We were at a birthday party yesterday for one of the boys, then Mom set up a whole table of Legos and the boys sat and made things for a long time. It was a definite hit! There are also tons of snack items with the Star Wars theme. Good luck and have fun in Italy!

We had good luck bringing Disney stuffed animals to a number of children last year - ages 2 to 10 probably. They couldn't get the same ones over there. We have Disney connections but you can probably get them on line. Be careful about CD's or DVD's - they may or may not work over there. Movies we sent over didn't work on their players.

Movie related stuff is a good idea too.

That could apply for children living far from the main cities, but Disney stores now are in all main Italian cities (One in Milano, one in ROme, one in Vanice, one in Florence... One in Bergamo!).

I think the big movie right now is the Incredibili -- or something like that (it's on the nutella jars and my kids went apenuts when they saw it).
Games are always good (if he has someone that will play with him ) -- I have yet to meet a kid that didn't like connect 4 ... sure you can get it here in Italy but so what. My experience has been that kids like presents and aren't to concerned if it is a "typical" american (or whatever country ) thing.
How about a flashlight - or one of those little kits where you make something like a birdhouse (this one only if he has someone that is willing to help him out).

Jiffy Pop popcorn -- kids freak when they see the pan puff up.

We have learned from Casey's friends in Italy that kids are kids and all like and play with the same things. If it is popular here, so it is there. 7 year olds like toys--the transformer you got will be perfect! Also, kids here and there like Beyblades and legos (as already mentioned). We also found that they are as fascinated with Yugioh cards as kids here (I find them a real pain) but they collect and trade them. Don't worry so much about whether they can get them in Italy--it is the toy that counts. If you try to get too fancy or unique, it will end up in the bottom of the toy box.

I suppose the most important or special thing is whatever gift you bring spend some time with the child - play a game of connect four - pop the popcorn together.
I think that is what will make the gift special (but then again what do I know?)

Several years ago, before one of our visits to Italy, we picked up a "clearance" item at Toys'R Us: a stuffed Simba - it growled when you pressed its head. It was a gift for my cousin's 2 year-old daughter, Angela.

Well, Angela just loved it (and so did her 4 year-old brother). I was surprised that it was very appropriate because the Lion King was very popular with children in Italy ... "Il Re Leone."

So, I think, this time I'll look for some Star Wars items to bring (good suggestion).

Get him something typically American, like a Harley Davidson or Corvette tee or sweatshirt. Or something from a US pro or college team. He'll like wearing clothes with logos that none of his friends have -- and that's something easy to fold and pack for the trip.