Simone Bonini

Simone Boniniis one of the most smiling and emblematic faces in the Italian ice cream scene. Carapina was born from his idea in 2008, in Florence, as a real start-up. In fact his research and experiments with ice cream had already started two years before: Simone Bonini was convinced that Italian ice cream making was static, tied to old stereotypes and concepts that were incapable of communicating the products’ freshness, seasonality, territory.

The first Gelato Carapina shop opened in May 2008 in Piazza Oberdan in Florence and immediately caught the interest of the public, of ice cream enthusiasts and other colleagues who shared a similar spirit.

Since the very beginning, Carapina’s ice cream was characterised by working with high quality raw materials, always giving priority to local products and respect for seasonality. The shop’s offer was focused only on a few flavours, alternating them every day: having many flavours, according to Bonini, necessarily means that you have to find other solutions which don’t really make sense.

Bonini reclaims the fatherhood of what today many call Gelato Gastronomico, today interpreted by many, often celebrated as the new frontier in ice cream and especially in restaurants. Simone is so convinced of this he has made the IgrandiFormaggiItaliani flavour a sort of symbol of Carapina, through which he interprets, in the shape of an ice cream, the best Italian cheese, often paired with honey or fruit and always available in the shop.