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The dawn of Italian fashion

The Buontalenti icecream flavor

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Gerard Loft

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Gabs

Angela Caputi's Giuggiù

Old Florentine jewellery

il Bisonte

Collecting in Florence Art and Crafts

Ugo & Carolina

Furla

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Where to shop?

Collecting in Florence

Riguccio Mulas

The true story of

Ice cream
[Susan Glasspool]

When I was a child in England (Cornwall actually) the very best icecream was usually the sort you could buy on the beach from a tinkling little van and went by the name of Kelly’s Cornish icecream. It still exists and even today you can see kids queuing up to buy their ices. It was not until some years later that I realised that Kelly’s was really Chelli’s and the icecream, though with the rich local ingredients, was really Italian!

So everything falls into place and it really is true that the Italians know how to make the best icecream... though little did I think all those years ago that I would often be able to enjoy the genuine article! So, when the narrow streets of the city centre are transformed into flaming desert canyons by the summer sun, there is really only one solution: a whopping great multicoloured dripping and cool icecream cone.

That is just what Buontalenti must have thought while he was toiling under the scorching sun to build Fort Belvedere or some other villa in the Florentine countryside: “My goodness, it’s terribly hot, I must quickly knock up a nice icecream!” Off he went to the kitchen, mixed a couple of egg yolks with a glass of milk, combined with a little chemistry and a touch of magic - and it was not long before he was able to enjoy the first ever giant-sized icecream. Jokes aside, icecream really does appear to have been invented by Bernardo Buontalenti, who - apart from being a famous architect in his day - was also employed by the Medicis as their master of ceremonies at court. Tradition has it that a great banquet was held for a delegation of Spanish diplomats in the summer of 1565.

Buontalenti not only took care of the usual dining arrangements but also - wonder of wonders! - created a luscious new dessert that left the Spanish guests utterly amazed. It was the very first icecream! Buontalenti, a genius of the Renaissance, would never have been able to create his icecream (made with egg yolks, honey, milk, butter and a drop of sweet wine) if it had not been for his chemical expertise, for he also discovered how to freeze the fatty ingredients like milk, butter and eggs. Needless to say, word of this new creation soon spread all over Europe and boy oh boy, did it become popular! If Richard II had still been alive he might even have become famous for saying “My kingdom for an icecream” rather than for a horse! But perhaps someone else said it, or certainly thought it, anyway, especially on a boiling hot day!

Today there are an abundance of flavours and ice-cream parlours and it is really hard to choose from the vast selection of colourful ices on display when buying a cone. There is almost always a choice of creamy, fruity or even vegetable flavours - though I would be somewhat wary of some of the newer brightly coloured ones in Chernobyl-orange, fluorescent green or Strumpfs-blue...Enjoy your choice anyway, you can always buy another!


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