Panettone (Part 3 of 4)

Whoever came up with the idea for a panettone fair should be knighted or given a medal or something. 

We attended day 1 of the fair and sampled all sorts of panettone.  We had no idea that making panettone was such an art form with so many variations.  (Below are catalog pages from just one vendor listing many varieties of panettone.) 

Vendors from all over Italy were represented at the fair.  All provided free samples of their tasty products.  So, we ate our way through the fair with small bites.  Did we say it was free?  It was.  Does it get any better? 

We sampled one delicious panettone with pistachio frosting.  Since Susan LOVES pistachios, she was in pistachio heaven.  Whoever invented pistachio frosting also deserves a knighthood or medal. 

At one table, there were panettone from different bakers and we were asked to vote for our favorites.  We took our electoral responsibility seriously and dutifully sampled every vendor's panettone, in some cases twice or three times.  You don't want to make a mistake when voting.  Our favorite was a panettone with chocolate. 

Here are some photos from the fair. 

Susan made a new friend, Francesco, a Florentine pastry chef who recently returned from a stint working at pastry shop Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos, California.   

The voting table

P.S.  We also attended day 2 of the fair and purchased from Franceso a panettone and also some torrone.  The panettone was orange with Cointreau.  Yummy, or delizioso, in Italiano.