Foreigners moving in on Italy's gelato market

Highest foreign presence in Milan, Florence

(ANSA) - Monza, May 2 - The art of pastry and gelato making in Italy is attracting more foreign dessert cooks, with as many as 637 such small businesses registered by foreigners on the peninsula - an increase of 7%, according to a study released Friday. Regional capitals with the highest percentage of foreigners working in the cake and cornet sector are Milan (with 28%), Florence (with 16.2%) and L'Aquila (11.5%), according to the study by the chamber of commerce of Monza and Brianza.

In all there were some 18,895 patisseries and icecream parlours active in March 2014, of which some 3,000 are concentrated in regional capitals - an increase of 1.2% over the previous 12 months. Rome has nearly 1,000 such small businesses, representing an annual increase of 4.9%. Of those 9.7% are run by foreigners catering to the sweet teeth of Romans and tourists.