Venice is awash with tacky carnival masks and Murano glass made in China, but away from the tourist boutiques unique gifts can be found in the city’s artisan ateliers, art studios, vintage stores and bookshops
• Have you come across a great souvenir shop in Venice recently?
On a narrow canal in a colourful corner of the Castello quarter, alongside one of the last boats in Venice selling fruit and vegetables, charismatic Ukranian artist and photographer Roman Tcherpak presides over an eccentric workshop/gallery where visitors can buy his intriguing handmade postcards and prints or sign up for a hands-on one-hour course to learn “Monotypo Venexiano”, his unique method of printing which he claims anyone can then practise back at home. The ancient red-brick studio is often filled with a lively crowd of bohemian would-be artists, with the flamboyant Roman holding court, explaining what he calls the technique of “printing digital by hand”.
• Postcards €1, prints €35, 1 hour course €75, Fondamenta Sant’Anna 996/a, Castello, on Facebook