"Che si sposano bene?"

...or, "What marries well?"

While David was taking pictures, I was tasting gelato, every chance I got.

I actually began the Frozen Confection Sampling Project on Aegina, the last stop on our one day "Greek Islands" ferry adventure. The island is known for its pistachio production; it's stark and rocky and covered with pistachio groves. So I snared a kilo bag of nuts (which were the salty snack of choice, in Tuscany), and had an ice cream, as recommended by our cruise director. The ice cream was bright green, studded with tiny bits of nuts, and totally luscious... with almost a hint of cherry flavor. Ah, but that was only the start.

In Montepulciano, I tried my first authentic Italian-made gelato: "ricotta e fiche" (ricotta and fig): pure white tanginess ribboned with honey-colored fig sauce. This seemed to be an entirely different fruit from the one that fills the Newtons -- no seeds, for a start. Fantastic.

In Cortona, I tried the local take on "pistacchio" -- this was an unfortunate Gerber's pea color, but the nut flavor and the smooth texture were unbeatable.

After a couple of purchases, I stumbled on to the important methodology involved in gelato eating: the "marriage". Most gelaterias charge the same price for two flavors on a cone as they do for one. Gelato is softer than ice cream and the server uses a flat scoop to pile the stuff into and on your cone. When you order two flavors, they are slathered side by side. The marrying question comes into play here. In Siena, I experimented with zabaglione and pistacchio: the sweet liqueur undertones married well with the nuttiness. Later the same day, I tried crema and amarena. Crema is like vanilla without the vanilla, and if that sounds like blandness on a cone, it's hardly that. It's the essence of sweet cream, and went perfectly with amarena, which is a dark slightly sour Italian cherry. Marriage is a cool thing.

But then, when I returned to Montepulciano, I had to have the ricotta e fiche again. It's sort of already married, anyway.

In Arezzo, I followed a somewhat confectionary theme, combining cantucci vin santo (flavored with sweet wine, and containing small bits of almond biscotti) and ferraro roche, milk chocolate and candy chunks (without the foil, of course). In San Gimignano, the first cone of the day was "tutti di frutta", deep red and sorbet-like, and a creamy peachy "pescha" (photo above). Before the trip out of town, I had ace (orange) and another take on pistacchio. The orange was the highlight of the project: intensely orange but creamy.

In Florence (where the small cone ran almost 3 euros, instead of the 1,80 I'd become accustomed to paying), I had a combination of "mezzanotte", a vanilla/chocolate/cookie blend, along with the amarena. Crema, in Siena, was the better partner to the cherries. A final trip to Cortona meant one last stab at a strong marriage: cioccolato and meringhe (which was crema studded with tiny chunks of white toblerone). The chocolate is amazingly intense.

I must make another trip to Italy, if only to continue to try new flavors and combinations. It's the search for the perfect marriage, and if it doesn't work out today, you can try again tomorrow. Or even later this afternoon.