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I’m Suffering from Gelato Withdrawal. . .

Finally, here is the much-awaited Italy Travel Blog. Due to high public demand, I’m putting out this one before the Chartres “1000th Anniversary of the Commissioning of the Cathedral” Medieval Festival that took place the week before I left for vacation, so stay posted for the Medieval Blog to come out probably next weekend. I really should write these blogs more often because I end up with so much to put in them they become very long - so here’s another long one, sorry!

I'm Suffering From Gelato Withdrawal

Lisa Damico
2007-03-08 19:53:32

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for an explanation/translation).

As Francesco explained to us, for his job, he is the one who creates and photographs food products, objects, etc for magazine/billboard advertisements. For example a martini company might hire him to do an advertisement for them. You'd see the sparkling martini glass with the olive on a toothpick looking perfect . . . what you don't realize is that the olive isn't real, nor is the liquor, it's actually a larger than life plastic olive that Francesco made
from a mold. You also don't realize that the majority of delicious, perfect-looking food-products in advertisements aren't actually food, but are instead giant plastic food look alikes because they photograph better at a larger size. Francesco's latest creations were several fork chairs made for a company called "Four Forks" (long story short, it's a play on words on an Italian expression) which we of course all had to take a turn sitting on (see the photos). After seeing Francesco's impressive portfolio, which makes you question pretty much every advertisement you've ever seen (manipulation by the media? . . no never) we thanked him and headed home to rest up for another fun-filled day.

Friday morning's breakfast included the yogurt, the kiwi, of course the cookies and the addition of new fruit. Roberto had been raving the night before about cachi (kind of pronounced like khaki) a fruit that is only in season for about one month a year so everyone basically eats as many as they can during this period. I had never heard of them before nor did I recognize this very soft, apple-sized fruit, so at the breakfast table Paolo shows me how one eats a caco with one's spoon. I take a bite of the caco and realize wait. . I have had this before . . . it's a persimmon! Probably most Americans haven't had persimmon before, but as there is a persimmon tree in my backyard at home and one where we go to church I have sampled this fruit many a time. What's so special about ...