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La Vela's ice cream
As a Sicilian, as a native from Palermo and as an ice cream lover as I am, a few lines on La Vela’s ice cream seem to me more than necessary.
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Anyone who has already read other articles on this blog knows that my writing style is unpretentious and that I have no interest in improvising myself as an artistic or historical "city guide" (for that there is already, among the many existing options, the manual of Palermo adoptive citizen Giuseppe Bellafiore); rather I like the idea that "my readers" (and I want to put the quotes due to the current little notoriety of this online space) perceive in every line the authenticity and the passion for my land that lead me to write frantically and pressing hard the fingertips on the PC keyboard, that they perceive the love with which I try to describe and make them identify with the emotions I feel when I talk about my beloved Sicily.
And for this very reason, I would like to dedicate a space to those places or those flavours that may seem less representative than others much more well-known to a stranger to the region.
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La Vela ice cream shop brings together two of the things that make us Sicilians so famous, namely the sea and ice cream, strictly inside the brioches with the tuppo (lit. chignon, like the one of the hair).
The ice cream parlour, which among other things is multi-award-winning and well known among the inhabitants of the Sicilian capital, is located in Piazza Bordonaro, in front of the shore at Vergine Maria district on which the foundations of the Bordonaro tuna fishery walls are based, which have the same color as the sun, not too far from the Florio family one.
The panorama in which the small café is inserted is, therefore, that one of a seafaring glimpse of a city whose heart beats at the rhythm of the sea waves that embrace it from the north. The café literally overlooks a small terrace from which it is easy to go down to reach the pebbles bathed in crystal clear water. In this small terrace there are light metal chairs usually moved towards the view to appreciate even more the moment of pause that the customer of the place indulges.
And here, in fact, that ice cream turns into a moment of total connection with the territory, a moment in which any noise or negative thought is absorbed and cancelled by the water that moves slowly in front of the eyes, while the seagulls draw semicircles in the sky and a few sails delicately cut the sea. And in the meantime you can taste the best ice cream you can ever find, an ice cream that is still stored in the refrigerator baskets covered with the steel lid like the one of the past, because La Vela ice cream does not need to show itself in a showcase as we are used to frequenlty seeing in bars.
And each bite harmoniously reveals the ingredients of the preparation which are above all the tradition, the sea and its silence.
When I eat the brioche with pistachio and hazelnut ice cream from La Vela, I feel these emotions, I feel that the landscape around me becomes more beautiful and I see its shades become clearer, but above all I hear the silent sound of the sea that hypnotizes me and that makes me feel at peace.
