I plan to write a full recap of my trip, but today was crazybusy at work, and I'm just too tired right now.
So instead the Institute for Adorableness brings you a special report in an area of vital importance: Snack Cuteness.
One might think that the Japanese might have a lock on this category, given their penchant for making anything short of capital murder chibified (and then, to be fair, we have guro.) And indeed, there are many cute Japanese snacks, with konpeito right at the top of that list. Until that fateful stop on the
autostrada, I too thought that konpeito might be the cutest snack ever.
We were on our way to Maranello, and we pulled off for fuel and a potty stop. Given our complete failure in Italian Road Navigation to that point, I hopped in to the shop in search of a map of Florence and a bite to eat. And there it was...
Pan di Stelle. (Look! Look at the website! It's whimsical and cheerful and adorable!)
From the front of the bag, the cookies were certainly charming, but I didn't look much beyond that. Given that my Italian is at the "baby talk" stage, I didn't pay attention to the back of the bag until much later, and this is what it says:
Le stelle erano molto distante l’una dall’altra e nonostante ciascuna si sforzasse pre brillare il più possible, non riuscivano ad illuminare nulla. Allora il Pan di Cacao disse loro che solo unendosi tutte insieme avrebbero dato abbastanza luce. Le stele si convinsero che ciò era vero e si raccolsero su di esso creando un buonissimo manto di cielo… e fu cosi che nacque le magia dei Pan di Stelle.
Between Babel Fish and my dictionary:
The stars were very distant from one another, and although they strained to shine as brightly as possible, they were not able to illuminate anything. Chocolate Bread said to them that only by joining all together could they give enough light. The stars convinced themselves that this was true, and they collected themselves into the best sky mantle... and thus was born the magic of Star Bread.
If this is not the cutest story about a cookie that you have ever read, there is something wrong with you.
We looked in vain for a second, unopened bag of Pan di Stelle to bring home. Knowing that there is very little you can not find on internets, I frantically searched for a site that would sell the cookies internationally, and found
Buon Italia, which is located in
Chelsea Market!
Guess where we are going this weekend. :D
Sorry Japan, you've lost your crown - long live Pan di Stelle!
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jaina, 
