The spirit of #Insieme200 (“#Together200”) is present everywhere in our daily lives, even in the neighborhood gelateria. One of the first known American recipes for a gelato-like dessert was scrawled out by none other than Thomas Jefferson. One can imagine that he got the idea for this from his good friend Filippo Mazzei, who perhaps brought over to Virginia more than just vines and ideas about all men being created equal.

More than 200 years later, the United States is one of the world’s largest consumers of ice cream and gelato (20.8 liters per capita, including gelato, every year). But there is still a ways to go. Gelato makes up only 5 percent of the U.S. overall market for frozen desserts and there is only one gelato business for every 65,140 Americans. In Italy, you only have to share a counter with 3,029 fellow gelato lovers. Thus, over the course of our bicentennial year, we are working with the Gelato Festival team to forge new “frozen” ties between Florence and the United States.