When I first moved to Southwest Florida a few years ago, I—being a shopaholic to the extreme—lamented the lack of good shopping here. Thankfully, in the past several years, this area has seriously ramped up its shopping opportunities. But it wasn’t until recently that I discovered downtown Naples’ “Trail of Treasures,” which is something of a treasure in itself.
In reality, it’s a cluster of antique, resale and home décor shops in one, walkable area between U.S. 41 and 10th Street North. There are 21 in all, and they all have the one-of-a-kind type of merchandise that partly feels like you’re getting your shopping fix and partly like you’re exploring in Grandma’s attic.
During my search, I was on the hunt for a Hollywood Regency-style bar cart, so I started at the furniture stores—Another Man’s Treasure (which also has a huge collection of DVDs for sale for $3… who knew), Recycled Treasures and Treasure Island (see a theme here?) Then I got carried away and ducked into Audrey’s, where I feel like I could have spent hours flipping through the racks of vintage clothing. There were heavily sequined dresses from the 1920s, brightly colored mod dresses from the ‘60s and even a rack of wedding dresses from the ‘40s. Even though I’m not necessarily the thrifting type, I still felt like I was in the midst of a hands-on fashion museum. Plenty to look at, and you can’t help but wonder what kinds of stories these pieces could tell.
Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon, if you ask me. Get outside, walk around and enjoy the cooler weather before it’s gone for another year. Even if you’re not looking for something specific, you’ll probably find something you can’t live without. I ended up leaving with a five-foot-tall wooden giraffe and no bar cart, but that’s another blog.
