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In the splendid main square of San Gimignano, Piazza della Cisterna, named after the well that is its principal feature, is Gelateria di Piazza, owned and run by a gregarious gelato-maker called Sergio Dondoli. In the 1950s, when the locals still outnumbered tourists, the gelateria was the site of San Gimignano’s first souvenir shop. Once located on the main pilgrim route from northern Europe to Rome, today the narrow Via San Giovanni delivers thousands of latter-day devotees into fashionable medieval town and to the door of Dondoli’s gelateria. Each year Dondoli enters Gelatissimo Italia, the nation’s premier gelato-making contest, and the walls of his gelateria are covered with certificates marking his triumphs. At Gelatissimo a single flavour is selected for competition - this year it was banana. “I speak ice-cream English”, he said with a grin. “An Italian is born to gelato, but we eat it in moderation. In Sicily they eat more than in Tuscany. Gelato is much sweeter in the south than the north of Italy. It is simple to make. The secret is to be curious, to experiment. That’s what makes the difference. I even make shrimp gelato once. In America they make gelato with a lot of butterfat. They use 20 per cent; we can use as little as 6 per cent. But you don’t need butterfat to make it creamy, you just need to make it fresh”.