Colorful breakfast: Macarons or Macaral?

I took some pictures, they’re very colorful and bright, looking so happy. They’re about this new trend of ‘Macarons‘, something I thought was produced in France. I’m speaking – writing?! 🙂 – by using the past tense, because, in fact, some days ago I discovered something different. There was this old lady, who was working in one of the most colorful and modern cake design/pastry of Florence – Rinaldini its the name – and she told me that their origins are Italian, they’re part of the Made-in-Italy-history.

In fact, by looking at the following pictures, you will see that they’re called ‘Macaral‘ in order to be distinguished from the universal trend of nowadays. I think that LadurĂ©e brand is playing a very essential role in the diffusion of those biscuits all around the world, and it’s also helping to spread the conviction that macarons are from France, even if it’s not true.

Macaral - Rinaldini - Florence

Anyway, wherever they’re from, it seems you can’t avoid to have 2, 3, 4, 5 (…) Macaral at least once in your life, for breakfast or a break in the afternoon..

Rinaldini pastry - Macaral in Florence

And if when you are in front of those colorful infinite rows, you have such difficulties to choose the best flavors, just don’t worry, it’s normal! You’ll be displayed all the possible flavors of the world…violette, strawberry, pistachos, licorice, chocolate, coffee and many, many others.

If you want a tip: just choose by the color 🙂

‘Dolci’: sweets in Naples, a total delight.

Last weekend I was i Naples, I got fat in just 3 days 🙂

I didn’t want to, but it was impossible to avoid those wonderful windows where you could stare at all those sweets. So utopian to not eat everything there, and here you are the explanation: ‘sfogliatelle’, ‘baba’ in the background and ‘struffoli’, the typical sweets for Xmas time.

sweets in Naples

And this was the wonderful bakery, or better a pastry shop, that draws the attention of everybody: this is Leopoldo, on of the most popular bakery of Naples. And now it’s becoming even more popular thanks to the addition of the ‘gelateria’ corner. Now you can have the pastry on the right (by Leopoldo) and ice creams on the left (by Casa Infante): a total delight.

DOLCI, Leopoldo in Naples

And finally, here you are one the wall that drew my attention, a black and white picture of the past:
delights of the past

Delights of the past, the same as in the present.