IL Paradiso Delle Bonta

Located in the small town of Assisi, Italy is a family run business making gelato ice cream. The man pictured above to the left is whose family has been running the business for many years now. During the long drive into our next big city we took a brief two hour stop at the IL Paradiso Delle Bonta factory to meet some of the workers and get a hands-on gelato making experience. They picked six volunteers from our group and I was one of them to be up front working the machines making the ice cream. Each of the volunteers got a flavor of gelato assigned to them that they would eventually make. They gave us the ice cream batter to start and then we got to do everything else. The workers took us step by step to show us how this delicious desert is made and how they incorporate the designated flavor into each batch. It truly is an interesting process that we all got to eat and enjoy afterwards. This experience was hands down another one that I will never forget since I was lucky enough to be up there making a flavor myself. Although the outfits are not the cutest with the hair nets, gloves, shoe covers, and aprons we all looked the same, and it made everyone laugh. The workers were really nice, but at some points there was a language barrier because we did not know Italian, and they knew little English. But, since we went with a tour guide she was able to help us communicate back and fourth which helped a lot. After the volunteers finished making the ice cream the two workers helping us did the signature flip on top of each tub giving the gelato a design. Once each gelato container was complete the volunteers took their flavors over to the freezer and served them to the rest of the group for them to try. We had a very big group doing this tour and I highly recommend looking into it if you have a tour group going as well. However, if you are just traveling near by with your family or friends you can stop in and purchase some gelato to eat without going through the whole tour. Overall, the gelato was delicious and it tasted even better because we were the ones who made it. If you are going over to Italy no matter where you go to sit down and eat, or just get desert you want to make sure you are visiting the true Italian restaurants. Sometimes they can be a little bit of a walk into the areas you are visiting, but they are far less crowded and offer you so much more hospitality and truly authentic food. If you take the time to do your research beforehand it will pay off so much more in the end when you finally get to enjoy it.

#digitalmonday