It might be the weather, the water, or the love with which it’s made, but regardless of the cause, the fact remains that the gelato is just better in Italy. Most gelaterias in Rome are pretty amazing. Of course, there are ones that are sub-par too (Blue Ice is the chain you’ll run into frequently). But for true craft gelato, the only choice is San Crispino. For the last couple of decades it’s been the gelateria that’s stayed true to the art of gelato, using only fresh, local ingredients and constantly striving to innovate new flavors. In the past 24 hours I’ve been to their location by the Trevi fountain three times. Here are my flavor combos: strawberry and Barolo wine (made with a 15-year-old bottle), honey and ginger & cinnamon, and hazelnut and plum. I’ve only scratched the surface and I’m already addicted.

Our pal Alice Wang dropped us a note letting us know about her latest project, Commodity Love. She’s at it again making us scratch our head wondering what’s true here. She says “As products get more and more attractive, can they replace the feelings we have towards our loved ones? Will you love your phone more than your girlfriend? Or will you love your car more than your wife? And how would you feel if your wife told you she suddenly loves chocolate more than sex?”

Depends what kind of car I guess.

The badges are made out of stainless steel with a piece of magnet at the back that can be attached to any garment.

They are on sale at Galleria Nina Lumer in Milan:

22-27 APRIL 2009
GALLERIA NINA LUMER
VIA BOTTA 8 20135 MILAN

Related Posts: Chairs with Personality, Sleep Inventions, Peer Pressure

If you happen to be in Genova, Italy this weekend we are super jealous. Not just because of the food, but because Rostarr is unveiling a new body of work titled Oculus Velocitas tomorrow night at the Galleria Il Trifoglio Nero. It is being promoted as a “rebirth of colour”, and if you know Rostarr’s history, black and white has dominated his work. We’ve only seen the painting in digital form, but from what we hear it should be pretty easy to view in person at his upcoming June show in London. We’ll keep you posted. And as for the Oculus Velocitas opening, the exhibition will run until April 4. If anyone makes it out, let us know.

This political season you are going to see a lot of buttons supporting various candidates. If you've ever been to a political rally you know how important these buttons are — they immediately identify who is friend and who is foe. Thanks to the guys at unconfessableideas.com we now can do the same with typefaces. They've done up some pin buttons for Serif and Sans-Serif. Now designer conferences are going to turn as heated as political rallies. Well, maybe not. Check out the pin buttons here and whole website full of clever objects (you might need to know a little Italian at times).

Anyone who knows this site (or me) knows I’ve been a big José Parla fan since early 2005 when I first discovered him, and also a collector since the very beginning; I was lucky enough to have a grabbed a few pieces from his first big successful show in Miami a few years back as well. Since that show, his success has been awe-inspiring and his work quickly becoming highly sought after by collectors around the world.

His first show in Italy (and first full scale show in a while) was just announced. The show, entitled Memory Documents, will be at the Genova, Italy gallery Il Trifoglio Nero from March 29th through May 10th. Time to find a good reason to visit for the opening! More information about the exhibit can be found on a PDF off Il Trifoglio Nero’s site here.

A recent issue of Esquire included a feature regarding America’s best-dressed males. There was a section honoring well-dressed celebrities, and a section for well-dressed men (of the un-paparazzied variety). The men, of course, were asked to explain themselves, to offer some reason why they should be acknowledged as a proper dresser. One offered some variation of the following statement: Women can spend hours squeezing onto a dress. It’s only right that men should reciprocate that dedication.

Let it be known: The thought of a man spending the same amount of time getting ready as a woman does not settle well with me. Boys, you have distinct formulas (open to creativity but nonetheless straightforward) for dressing. Follow them. This should take anywhere from 3-20 minutes. However, If you do want to get fancy, devote your efforts to grooming, which will be made easier by products from Acca Kappa, an Italian company that’s been making princes look like kings since 1869 (while simultaneously making them feel like men). You can find Acca Kappa in select stores in the States; go here to see what’s near you.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the folks at eCool love our Design Showcase as much as we do; week after week they share their incredible finds with us — and you. This time around, it’s the collaboration of Pandora Design with Guilio Iacchetti, which resulted in some very kitschy souvenirs for tourists visiting Italy from here on out; Iacchetti took mundane objects such as juicers and fly swatters, melded them together with notable Italian maps and architecture and created updated versions that you’d be totally stoked to get from Grandma upon returning from her annual jaunt to St. Peter’s. We think you should join eCool in the fun and submit your finds now.

I know guys who’d use any excuse to dress up in skirts and beat the crap out of eachother with wooden sticks, so it’s no surprise to me that now there’s hotels that cater specifically to this niche form of masculinity. eCool points as much out to us this week at our Design Showcase, wherein vacationing at the Rome’s Cavalieri Hilton Hotel will allow you education in all things Gladiator; Roman residents are also alerted to the Gruppo Stucco — an organization which allows anyone trained through them to participate in such historical re-enactments as the rituals of Vestal Virgins and the Madonna Fiumarola procession. Pretty sweet, right? For his effort, he’s getting his very own Behance Network invitation. Want one for yourself? Submit your finds to the Design Showcase now, and if your entry is spotlighted, you too could find yourself in creative pro network heaven.

Some of you may be familiar with the work of Damien Hirst, as well as the ones which also mock him. This week, though, saw a submission through our Design Showcase which while similar, is neither: A Very Hungry God, the 2200+ pound skull crafted of pots and pans by Subodh Gupta, currently floating on a Venice’s Grand Canal in front of the Palazzo Grazzi. The piece was designed as a commentary about Parisian soup kitchens using pork in dishes, which is not allowed in Muslim diets. Très intéressant, indeed.

Thanks to the folks at eternallycool for their submission, which has scored them one of Belkin’s awesome new Mousetraps. You have something that should be featured here? Join us and Kohler over at the Design Showcase, submit your finds and you, too, could be scoring some sweet schwag.

Italian designlab Nonesiste has been getting quite a bit of buzz for their V/a.g.r.a. Lamp, a wall-mounted lighting option that curls up when on and, uh, goes flaccid when turned off. I think it’s nice too, but I have no idea why anyone would choose to have just one light tendril/pharmaceutical reference when you could have TEN AT ONCE. V/a.g.r.a’s more generously endowed relative, the Arsenio, offers a double-digit amount of arms, all of which curl into a rather endearing chandelier-ish thing when turned on, then, when not in use, flop back down to a depressing mass of saved energy. Yep, I’d rather scream “Arsenio!” than “V/a.g.r.a!” any day…

The creative team behind Italy’s Pig Magazine — a.k.a Sean Beolchini and the Beckerman brothers — recently created a line of stellar sunglasses. Dubbed Retrosuperfuture, these new sunnies are pretty radical, and what makes them even radder is their handmade production process, which takes place in one of Italy’s most well respected sunglass-production facilities. The Super Retro, the line’s first and (currently) only style, incorporates Zeiss lenses, buckets of love, and a very manageable price tag into one lustable set of lenses. They’re available in a rainbow-rific selection of colors which is a perk that personally stresses me out a little, so watch out if you have decision making problems. Caliroots received a very limited quantity of these a few days ago, so if you’re looking for some summer sunshine blockers, get over there soon, because I don’t think you’ll have much luck trying to find these elsewhere.

Designed in 1959 by the legendary Enzo Mari for Danese Milano, the Calendario Biliancia (Perpetual Calendar) is truly, no pun intended– timeless design. The calendar uses three different strips of fine wood (walnut, beech, maple) for an old-school-style slide/ruler like calendar. Enzo Mari is now actually teaching at Isia in Florence and at the European Design Institute in Milan– what a professor he must be. You can pop by Nova 68 to purchase ($120) or see more detailed photos.

Via Product Dose

I’m loving the domestic disturbance, the designs, and the larger ideas that seem to define Munich, Germany based Blake Hamster’s first run of clothes. Although limited to 4 guys and 4 gals shirts, they’ve hit the ground running with an eco-friendly, socially responsible, creative, and passionate line. The shirts were sewn in Italy – at the same place as Escada, Chanel, and Etro – with soft organic cotton and seacell yarn. Blake Hamster seems to have the right ingredients to make their label work– and despite their high price point (100-150 Euros for a shirt), I’m sensing quality here and I see this brand surviving the initial hurdles. You should know that if you like any of their stuff, you should buy it a.s.a.p.– each style is limited to about 50 pieces this first time around.

New York based designer Brad Ascalon recently showed off his elegant Period Table, a new piece for Italian furniture company Sintesi, at the Salone Internationale de Mobile in Milan. Ascalon’s use of powder coated steel and tempered glass make for an interesting twist in this classically inspired table, and I’m sure there’s a list of other alluring details somewhere, but no amount of googling will give me more information on product or availability. Even the link I found to the Sintesi site sadly reported, “documento on trovato,” when I clicked through… sigh, another tragic ending in the pursuit of beauty. If any of you have better luck in your searches, let us know where to go.