Aci Trezza: the homeland of ice cream
According to tradition, Aci Trezza is the home of the ice cream. Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli invented the icecream in this village.
It is known that Procopio was born in Sicily, but the sources do not agree on his native city: a long tradition wants him to originate while from Aci Trezza, a more recent and corroborated hypothesis places him as a native of Palermo. The reliable hypothesis is that he was born in Palermo and that he lived for a period of his life in Aci Trezza, where thanks to the historically significant trade in the snow of Etna, Procopio would have created ice cream. In fact, he developed a formula to prepare an exclusive ice cream: he replaced honey with sugar and added salt and ice to make it last longer. Thus it was that he later founded the first ice cream parlor, the oldest café in Paris, called Le Procope in 1686.
