Smurf ice cream anyone?

From Our Foreign Correspondent is a long-running Radio 4 programme which does what it says on the tin. Brief reports from a variety of places - four or five in half an hour - that focus more on the personal stories of items in the news. 

This morning reports covered Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, Costa Catalonia, tourism in south Sinai, exotic bird poaching in China, and Smurf ice cream in Italy.

I missed most of the tourism bit but the others were a depressing glance at the world in which we live - except for the gelato!

Things I learned

Italian artisan gelato manufacturers are celebrating their best season ever with sales up by 10%. 

Puffo, a bright blue ice cream, means Smurf.

If you see bright blue ice cream in a gelateria it's probably not a genuine gelateria. Many gelaterie don't make their ice cream the traditional way but bring in pastes and flavourings. So if the strawberry ice cream is brightly coloured or if the chocolate s almost dark, it's probably not the 'real' thing. Real artisans don't use pastes.

Pistachio is the Italian favourite.

Some Italian GPs say that ice cream with its mix of ingredients makes a perfect healthy lunch. (I always have ice cream for lunch when in Italy. I am way ahead of nutritionists.)

You can buy 'healthy' ice cream e.g. virgin olive oil gelato. 

Bologna is the home of gelato with a gelato university and museum. (Note to self: put Bologna on my must-visit list.)