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African arts and crafts including woven baskets, rugs and colourful patchwork quilts. Also recycled drink cans, ingeniously transformed into CD racks, boxes, briefcases and other useful items.

You’ve seen them in every café but maybe the name escapes you. Churros are the doughnuts madrileños eat for breakfast, often dipping them in a cup of thick hot chocolate.

Beautiful hand-crafted gems, made on the premises from natural stones such as amber and amethyst. Range of styles, and you can design your own piece if you wish.

Wrought-iron enthusiasts, look no further. This family business deals in everything from coal scuttles and fire-guards to bellows, weather vanes and milk churns.

Craft fairs spring up all over the city the week before Christmas. Try Plaza Mayor or Plaza de las Comendadoras.

This useful store, just a few minutes’ walk from Puerta del Sol, sells everything from CDs and sound systems to cameras, videos, books and mobile phones. Helpful floor staff, some of whom speak a little English.

Stocks just about everything the photographer might need – cameras, new and second-hand, film, camera cases, tripods and other specialist equipment. Also sells binoculars.

Salamanca’s other main shopping centre also has a good selection of boutiques (including a branch of the Spanish chain, Zara).

Enter through the arch of this attractively restored courtyard to explore the shops – on two levels – specializing in antique furniture and objets d’art .

This famous jeweller occupies one of the signature buildings of the Gran Vía dating from 1916. The gleaming window displays of rings, watches and other items (all original designs) are equally distinguished.