Gelati Festival

(Gelati spoons as art. The ad I stumbled across a few days before it the festival began.)(CINQUE gelatis at once. That's a solid effort.)

I forgot to mention (I've no idea how!) that I was in Firenze for the gelati festival. Of course, given the obsession some of my friends have for ice-cream I bought my 5 tastes ticket. (It is not, happily, a personal foible. Chocolate I'm there everytime. Gelati, hmm, take it or leave it. So this is for you guys- you know who you are!)

Your ticket entitles you to go around ALL the boths across Florence (there are 5 main piazzas all set up for it. So picture 5 Fed Squares in Melbourne with a few marquees, each with about 5 different stalls, each stall with at least 8 different flavours.) Then you hand over one of your vouchers each time. The 'tastes' were generous- Ma and I shared them all.

(Choices four and five, naughty secret aniseed and yummy biscotinni.)

We tried dark chocolate, raspberry sorbet on a stick, biscottini, rosewater pistachio (a rogue choice, obscurely labelled as that brand's 'speciality'. So of course we tried it but Ma was AGHAST to taste the rose.) and then it was MY turn to be disgusted by the aniseed flavour hiding among the chocolate chips in our final choice.

(Sorbet on a stick. They looked gorgeous as a collection, such bright colours.)

Come ride with me....

....come ride, let's ride away...

ha ha ahhhhhhh

I feel so invigorated!

I feel like I've spent the day filming an ad. For clothes? Sunnies? Mineral water? Perfume? Italian tourism? Any of it, all of it!!

The sunshine was glorious, and I spent the morning promenading in a '50s style frock. It's mint green with an abstract floral print in pink, lemon, white, charcoal grey and deep purple. Very Dior 'New Look' or January Jones in Mad Men, it swishes like a dream. The sunnies are faux Raybans in a pink&black gingham check.

After lunch, meanwhile, I rode a bicycle around the streets and wall of Lucca. The town's 4.2km wall is just MADE for an afternoon ride in the sunshine. A breeze to keep you cool, trees planted all along to dapple you in shade as you whizz along, dodging the evening walkers. I paused for a moment to pull the bottle of mineral water out of my basket, and as I opened the lid the water fizzed everywhere. It was refreshing after the heat of the ride, and of course there's nothing to do but giggle at the water spray.

By now I was wearing a shortie gingham playsuit with a little white straw hat. Weaving around, laughing, the hat tossed in the basket, the wind rustling my hair, hunting out gelati with my cousins, how could it NOT feel like a moment worth every penny?

-fin-