So How Exactly Do Italians Stay Slim?

It's the picture of Italian ice-cream in a shop of Rome, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)By Wendy Kaufmann


After travel, our next greatest passion in life is enjoying good food, and so our recent trips to Italy left us with not only wonderful memories, new travel ideas, and great holiday snaps, but it also left us with a whole lot more than an inch to pinch!
A country passionate about everything from the way they speak to each other (hands and all!), the way they dress (don't forget the sunglasses!), and the way they cook, the Italians certainly know how to live life to its fullest, and their Mediterranean style of cooking tickles the taste buds in all the right places.
From teeny tiny espresso's and sweet treats for breakfast, to pizza lunches, and pasta and salad evening menus, they really know how to create a delicious meal from simple ingredients, and that's before you even get started on the gelato!

Florence And The Birth Of The Modern Gelato

Image via Wikipedia
By Stefano Becheroni


The good season is getting closer. Time for sun, cold drinks, light clothes and, of course, gelati! Any tourist wondering through the Florentine beauties will soon discover that the Tuscan summer can be hot, really hot. This is how he will probably start looking -pretty desperately- for something refreshing, and this is how he'll reach the closest gelateria. If he is staying in an apartment, he will buy the biggest gelato cup available and will run to chuck it straight into the freezer. You wouldn't want to run out of gelato on a hot, Florentine summer night, would you?

Two Cultures - One Experience

Image via Wikipedia
By Constance Grayson
I sit in the piazza after my lunch, dopo il pranzo, and ask myself one question. Is there any food on earth as sensual as a cone of gelato? I have just sat on the low brick wall in the piazza, feeling the daily warmer sun of this spring on my back, and savored a cone of half coffee, half chocolate chip gellato. An old man in a cooper colored suede jacket and faded blue trousers makes his bent-over way beside me. He must have heard my moan of sheer pleasure as I ran my tongue around my ice cream cone for he caught my eye and smiled-that ageless smile that acknowledged between his time and mine, his culture and mine, that sometimes the purely physical is simply exquisite.