Zadar Souvenirs

The peninsula sells plenty of mass-produced trinkets, and none of it is what this region is actually good at. Four local products are worth the luggage space: Maraschino, the cherry liqueur distilled in this city since the eighteenth century and still made to the same base recipe; sheep cheese from the island of Pag, hard, salty and grazed on herbs; olive oil from the Ravni Kotari fields inland; and salt harvested by hand at the Nin pans.

After those come lavender and herb products, embroidered linen, and the red coral and filigree silver that the Adriatic jewellers work. The shops selling the real versions are scattered through the Old Town lanes and around the forum, and the market is worth a walk before any of them. A jar or a bottle beats a magnet, and customs limits are the only real constraint.