South of the Border

In true confessional style, bless me readers, for I cannot believe that it is almost a month since my last post. Shameful.

But I am determined to make amends. Right now. This summer, for one reason and another, I explored new (to me) areas along England's South Coast and found some gems. And a horror or two.

For starters (I'll stick to the positives for now), there was a truly old-fashioned Italian ice cream parlour, Fusciardi's, in Eastbourne.



Definitely NOT on a par with anything I have tasted in Italy (sorry) or even elsewhere in the UK - Gelateria Danieli in Richmond (near London, not Yorkshire) was pretty amazing - but I still really enjoyed sitting down to absorb all that Fusciardi's had to offer. I guess it's a cross between Ponti's and Marine Ices. I used to visit Ponti's as a child - whenever we went to John Lewis in Oxford Street. Then it seemed something special and a treat. Getting a real Italian coffee was much harder in the '70s and Soho was too far when there was a school uniform to be purchased. Now I find the same place mildly depressing. Last time I popped into Ponti's (more out of curiosity than anything else), it seemed to be full of people who wanted to escape (perhaps to Italy?) - or just ground down by long-working hours (quite a few retail staff were taking shelter in the booths). But Fusciardi's has gone big on the decor - quite OTT in parts - so I think it's determined that every customer will be cheery. At all times.



Here you can see the full display of Venetian masks:



This was a Caribbean Rhapsody, which I didn't sample but the woman enjoying it told me it was her favourite: