The list of names of well-known men and women hanging out at historical coffee shops in Italy is very long. Just have a seat in these places, take a coffee or an aperitif and you immediately have the pleasant feeling of jumping back into the past, where antiques, art works or antique furniture pieces recall memories of celebrities that intertwine with the historical events of our country. Some became fast foods or bou- tiques. However, more than 120 still survive, and we would like to tell about and these places and keep them alive in our memory, as they carry on pages of history and culture of our Bella Italia with pride and courage.
Who knows how many times Vincenzo Consolo – writer of Sant’Agata di Militello, friend of Sciacia – stopped at Rosario Calanni’s place to taste Whis cup of lemon and chocolate ice-cream. It is the year 1930, and in “a town at the feet of the Nebrodi mountains and with view over the wandering and transparent Aeolian is- lands” – this is how the author describes his town Sant’Agata di Militello – Rosario Calanni Belli starts the production and sale of ice- cream (just two flavours) and lemon water ice, both in the shop and along the roads in town by means of a refrigerated tricycle. A passion passed down to his son, Rosario Jr, who carries on the family tradition and founds the Bar Gelateria and Pasticceria Campidoglio in 1964. Pastry making joins the ice-cream production, and soon becomes strong point in processing almonds and ricotta cheese. Giuseppe and Sebastiano, third Calanni generation, will continue the business passed down by their grandfather, and handmade processing methods, though with an eye towards the search for new hints and development in the area. Nothing has changed in the working method, being just like in 1930. Products are conceived as they used to be 80 years ago, exclusively handmade. Credit given to the young Calanni generation, who used an expanding business policy going beyond Sicily and who managed to win even the horeca sector in Italy as well as abroad with the sale of so-called “excel- lent” products of Sicilian tradition: cassata and cannoli. Moreover, to prove how much the past is still present in their business, those who enter the Bar Campidoglio cannot but try handmade ice cream: truffles and mini ice-cream cones, each piece made one by one, just like in the past when Grandpa Rosario sold it in his tricycle along the nar- row roads in town.and they take advantage of the old recipes
