Ice-cream Festival (4 Hours)

You will meet your professional Multilingual speaking guide in the hotel’s lobby

There are no studies or texts about the origins of ice cream that can overlook the fundamental importance assumed by the Tuscan capital in the invention of the ice cream in the similar form to that now everyone enjoy. It was the period of the great inventions and revival of arts and culture, of course also in the kitchen: the Renaissance. They were the first decades of the sixteenth century when the amateur cook poultry sellers named Ruggeri participated in a competition held by the lords of Florence, the Medici, on the theme: "The most unique dish that had ever been seen". Ruggeri took advantage of the old recipes for preparing a frozen dessert that immediately won over the judges decreeing the victory. The fame of his recipe spread throughout Tuscany and when Catherine de Medici was about to leave for France had no doubt that Ruggeri had to follow her along with the best cooks in the family. It is no coincidence that the Firenze Gelato Festival came into being in the capital of Tuscany. Indeed it was here that in 1536 Bernardo Buontalenti was born. Eclectic artist, painter, sculptor, architect, stage designer and military engineer, when he was at the service of the Medici family he also dealt with organizing the court festivals. Appointed by Cosimo I to prepare the banquet to inaugurate the Fortezza del Belvedere, in 1559 Buontalenti bowled over guests with a cold cream made from a base of milk, honey, egg yolks plus a splash of wine, aromatized with bergamot, lemons and oranges. So if the fame of the Florentine ice cream had been exported to France thanks to Catherine de 'Medici, the Florentine noblemen’s international guests tasted and savored the tasty cold dessert and made haste to publicize and offer it on returning to their countries. In a few decades, Florence became famed as the birthplace of gelato, laying the foundations for a tradition that still boasts success in the culinary field today. The Firenze Gelato Festival is the event that brings together the best gelato makers and main companies in the field from Italy and abroad to promote the Florentine tradition of the cold cream: the Gelato all’italiana.

After the visit, your professional English speaking driver will escort you back to the hotel.