Venetian people are famous for their creativity and inventiveness. So, Carnival is maybe the most meaningful event of the year. The same creativity that permit Venetian people to realize the first gelato carts.
Go back to the beginning…
Most people don’t know but gelato as business is quite recent.
Indeed, the Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli was the first to realize a gelato shop as the modern ones. Also if we can find different episodes about Gelato in the past (Medieval Ages or Renaissence), it’s only in the 19th Century that it began famous.
Photo by Lazzarin’s family. Thank you for share with us this invaluable memory
So, ice cream carts began to circulate on the streets of Europe thanks to the inventiveness of some Belluno people. We can say that Veneto is the home of Gelato Carts.
Indeed, the valleys of Cadore and Zoldo, in the second half of the nineteenth century, lived a deep crisis: the local economy is pulverized and residents in a short time were forced to reinvent itself a trade.
Thus, in winter, small groups of miners, woodworkers and smiths, moved to Northern Europe cities, including Vienna, vendors of roasted chestnuts, pears and caramelized apples.
But the sale of these products was seasonality, so the Venetians sensed that even when going to work in summer it was necessary to find a new product: the gelato.
