Donelli Pasticceria, San Polo D’Enza
Happy New Year to all my readers. I thank you for reading my blog and hope that you will continue to do so! Do leave me comments even if they aren’t complimentary as its nice to get feedback.
You may be wondering why I have featured the window of a Pasticceria in this post especially early in the New Year when people are making New Year Resolutions and going on detox diets after the excesses of the Christmas season. Well, I passed this window and noticed the chocolate bust which you must agree looks grim and somewhat disapproving. After seeing all the pretty angels and laughing Santas, it was quite a change so I went to take a good look at it. It turned out that it was a bust of Dante and indeed representations of him do make him look rather serious. The cake in the shape of a book featured one of his lines from The Divine Comedy.
- Dante Statue, Florence
Fatti non foste a viver come bruti
Ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza
(You were not made to live as brutes
But to follow virtue and knowledge)
Now isn’t that a fine maxim for the New Year?
Don’t ask me why this verse should be featured in a Pasticceria but I guess eating pastries and chocolate does not denote a lack of virtue. It didn’t feel right to just take a photo and walk out so I bought some traditional pastries from that part of Emilia Romagna and I must say, they were simply delicious.
My attempted virtues for the New Year involve drinking and exercise and I don’t mean trying to increase the speed at which I can raise a glass to my lips!
