It's been awhile since I've spoken about sweets, so here's a dose of everything dolci packed into one day. The fruit here is amazing, but we can't just eat that. And for many, fried foods are a delight, and most of the desserts made were just that, besides a few things like gelato. 

Gelato came awhile after shaved ice and flavored purees. The Egyptians would eat crushed ice with fruit purees and the Romans ate snow with honey. It was an architect in the 1500's who conceived ice cream with milk and eggs. Gelato is a bit different than ice cream because it contains more milk, is churned slowly eliminating air bubbles, and makes a dense and highly addictive creamy consistency.

For lunch, we got to eat a variety of dessert, who could be happier about this? We enjoyed cantucchi, a type of biscotti with almonds, olive oil gelato which was amazing none the less, and struffuoli, mini fried balls of anise-flavored dough carmelized in honey and stacked into small mounds. I was excited to eat chiacchiere- a fried pasta dough dusted with powdered sugar from Veneto- because my grandmother would make this for my family when I was little. I even remember her making gingerbread men around the holiday and sprinkling them with nonpareils. Monte Bianco is a dessert of pureed chestnut passed through a food mill which creates long twisted strands that remind me of a dessert from elementary school. It's then topped with whipped cream, my absolute favorite part (chestnut is a unique flavor). And finally the tortelli di carnevale made from pate choux and stuffed with pastry cream and dusted with powdered sugar. The only bad part about that day was smelling like fryer oil.