Twenty-something Hadley Emerson, a promising photographer, immediately feels how Florence stirs her emotions, her heart, and her creativity. She feels alive, saying, “I’ve never been anyplace that I want to capture so much” (136). Years later, her daughter undergoes a similar experience when she first visits the city’s Medieval Ponte Vecchio, saying, “It gave me a solemn, awestruck kind of feeling. Like going to a church. Only I wanted to stay here for the whole rest of my life” (160). Before Lina falls in love with Ren, she falls in love with Italy.

Love & Gelato taps into a deep cultural association between Italy and romance. Since the sweeping romantic tragedy of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Italy has been conceived within the cultural imagination as a magical land of romance and passion, embodying the concept of la dolce vita (or the good life), a term that iconic Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini popularized in one of his many quirky fantasy-romances set in the environs of Rome. With its distinct Old-World charms—its cities, towns, and seaside villages preserve the look and feel of both the Medieval and Renaissance eras—Italy has become a splendid escape for lovers young and old, a place to affirm new love or to rekindle its fires.