Oh-so-sweet treats...

Before I came to Italy, I had always associated the country with having great food. Great pizza, great pasta, delicious ice-cream. But in all honesty, I hadn't heard too much about cakes and pastries. What a pleasant surprise it was to find that the cakes and pastries here are SO GOOD! Behold, a small but perfectly formed collection of calorific treats that I picked up yesterday!

 

Now, when I would go to the bakery in England, I seem to recall the millionaire shortbread or gingerbread man or whatever it was that I had bought, being thrown into a paper and bag and not given a second thought. Here, however, your pastries are boxed or packaged, wrapped, and in this particular case, with a lovely bit of ribbon. And no, I didn't go to some super posh, expensive bakery. When an already awesome experience such as cake eating is made to feel like Christmas because you have to unwrap it first, it's just so much better!

Then when you actually reach the cakes themselves, oh how lovely they are! Probably about a million calories in each one (that's only a slight exaggeration) but this is Italy- good food is a way of life. And these cakes are DEFINITELY good food. I positively attacked them with my fork. And then I realised that the fork was slowing me down, so of course, that was discarded almost immediately! The one on the bottom right is my personal favourite. These particular cakes are called cannoli, and have a sweet pastry casing filled with ricotta and chocolate chips.The other little lovelies on my plate included tiramisu (big hit of alcohol in that one!) and a ricotta, chocolate and pear creation. Needless to say, they were absolutely delightful! People may not come to Italy specifically for the cakes, but if you do visit, make sure you try a nice plate of sweet treats like these!

Just one more thing...

Another item that Italians like to wrap, is medicine that you buy from the pharmacy. How very odd. A slightly less pleasant gift inside but thoughtful nonetheless. "Here are your very expensive and difficult to swallow tablets Mr Giuseppe, but we've wrapped them for you so I'm sure the whole experience will be MUCH nicer!!"