Naples, 1866

Sign reads: Acqua Gelata (ice water) E Cocco Fresco (fresh...?) Al Bicchiere 5 cent (5 cents a glass)

I don't know much about Italian language or culture. I'm a deplorable person, without so much a thirst for knowledge as a bad case of cottonmouth. I did, however, play a lot of online 8-ball and scrabble, so much that I felt I needed multiple account names with which to build ratings. One of these names was a misremembered phrase from a photo in a book called 150 Years of Photo Journalism. (You'd never believe how many books share that title.) I mistakenly added the al and later dropped the second c because it was easier to remember.

I never found that "Aha!"  handle, so this became my de facto account name. The caption in the book describes this as a lemonade and ice cream stand, and I pride myself in actually remembering that, as well as having had a dim recollection of what "al fresco" really means (Italian for "in the fresh air"), though I remember the vendor as having a handlebar moustache and holding an ice cream cone. But looking at it now I'm not even sure the caption is correct, or if those oval things at the front of the stand are coconuts (what online translators tell me "cocco" means), or if there was some confusion between "gelata" and "gelato." (Though these phrases are found in other pictures of ice cream carts/shops, and Italy has often been on the cutting edge of ice cream technology, so what do I know.)

All the photos in 150 Years of Photo Journalism  and many more can be found here. (Though they all have the Hulton Getty watermark, which kinda stinks.)