Gelato meets mixology

Founder and Creative Director of Italian Cocktail Weeks. Born and raised in Tuscany, in the Crete Senesi, Paola grew up surrounded by her region's food and wine culture. With a degree in French literature and a master's in journalism, communication and food criticism, she combined her passion with professional writing, becoming a journalist and contributing to Gambero Rosso's food guides. Her training and experience in food event organisation and a growing passion for hospitality and mixology led her to found Italy's first cocktail week: since 2016 she has been founder and artistic director of Florence Cocktail Week, joined in 2019 by Tuscany Cocktail Week. Invited to Venice, in 2021 she sealed the format's success with Venice Cocktail Week, followed in 2022 by Cortina Cocktail Weekend with the first 'Mixology's Cup' on skis, and in 2024 by Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week, devoted to the best cocktail bars of the Coast and Campania. To help the sector grow, at the end of 2023 she gathered all her cocktail weeks under the umbrella 'Italian Cocktail Weeks by Paola Mencarelli'. With Giunti she published in 2021 'I Signature Cocktail di Florence Cocktail Week, 5 anni in 143 drink', a true historical archive of Florentine mixology. A judge for some of the most important Italian and international rankings, in 2022 she received the Order of Merit as Consul of Italian Hospitality. In 2026 came the new editorial project 'Cocktails in Florence', with the Florentine publisher Gruppo Editoriale, celebrating ten years of FCW with a journey through the city's 59 best cocktail bars, selected by Paola Mencarelli and told through their iconic drinks.

In Palermo, inside a former chapel a few steps from the centre, Sartoria MiscelazioneDemocratica is a convivial street bar designed to welcome anyone who wants to drink well without feeling out of place. The four partners — Fabrizio Candino, Matteo Bonandrini, Ivan Geraci and Andrea Caputo — pursue a lively, cross-cutting idea of mixology: every cocktail works on textures and reinterpretations, taking the guest on an original yet clear sensory journey. Sartoria was born from the wish to make quality drinking democratic: hospitality, attention to detail, selected ingredients and a strong bond with guests. Tailors have needle and thread; these Tailors have a shaker and a glass. Fabrizio Candino has worked in hospitality for about fifteen years, specialising almost immediately in mixology. He fell for bartending at once, discovering not only cocktails but cultures, stories and skills, and took the profession around the world: Spain, Portugal, the United States, Mexico. He blends work with his greatest passions — the new, adventure, travel, new flavours and creative pairings between kitchen and bar. He has taken part in several top-level international competitions, winning many, most recently Art of Italicus 2023, which earned him the title of global bartender of the year. In 2021 he opened Sartoria – Miscelazione Democratica with his partners.

A master gelato maker since 2010, Cinzia Otri builds her idea of gelateria on outstanding raw materials and respect for seasonality, with a special eye on recovery and waste. Three Gambero Rosso cones since 2017, in 2022 she was named among the 25 best gelaterie in the world by the Financial Times.

A dyed-in-the-wool Piedmontese, born in 1986, with a degree in Economics for Cultural Heritage and a past in contemporary art, she turned her passion for hospitality into a way of life. After years in Milan's bars, she co-owns, with Edoardo Nono, Rita&Cocktails — the historic Milanese American bar, currently #49 in the 50 Best Bars Europe — and its Caribbean-Polynesian spin-off Rita's Tiki Room. In 2024 she founded The SHE Side, a community project for women professionals in the bar and hospitality industry. With Gianni Tratzi she curates WeCoffeeClub, the annual summit on coffee and mixology. She writes on hotels and restaurants for Italian and international titles including Linkiesta, Cook.Inc, Falstaff and Italia Squisita.

I am a gelato maker and, together with my husband Omar Leoni, co-founder of Io e Gelato in the province of Pisa. I began my career behind the counter of a historic gelato shop in the province while studying architecture at university, which I then left for my passion for gelato making. Over sixteen years in the trade, after the first basic courses, I have kept training constantly with the finest masters of gelato, pastry and chocolate, following every refresher course and master class offered over the years. In 2022 I took second place at the Sherbeth Festival with the flavour Macchiaiolo, a Mediterranean-scrub pine nut infused with juniper and pine bark.

Stefano Cecconi is the gelato maker and owner of Cremeria Cecconi in Arezzo. After fourteen years in the gelato trade, following years as an employee and a great deal of study, he opened his own shop in 2019 in the historic centre of his beloved city, Arezzo. In his gelato there are stories of friendship and love, with full respect for the ethics of craftsmanship and for the value of his own territory. Despite his young age, he is considered one of the finest professionals in the field by Italy's leading critical and journalistic publications. He shares his successes — past, present and future — with the staff he holds so dear. “Because however good and competent you may be at something, you will still only ever be one person.”

Born into a family of gelato makers, since 2010 she has contributed to the evolution of the business by creating Chocogioia. She later deepened her training at the Università dei Sapori in Perugia, an experience that allowed her to devote herself successfully to creating and producing pastry and biscuits.