There is no Christmas in Porto Cervo without Gianni and Franca's homemade panettone . For 35 years, sweets created with ingredients and procedures of the master pastry chef Griseri, once at the service of the most famous hotels on the Costa, have been cut on the tables of the Costa Smeralda.
Clementines from Agrimontana with candy dressing, marron glacé, figs, mango and papaya, grapes macerated in Grand Marnier : these are the ingredients of the five versions of the panettone made in Porto Cervo.
Among the dull shop windows of the big brands that crowd Sardinia's most popular summer destination, the sprightly seventy-year-old couple is an example of successful entrepreneurship that goes beyond the "season".
« My husband enters the laboratory from 3 in the morning, he can't go out for the interview. The panettones must rise for 48 hours, then they must be bagged before the bar opens », explains Franca Murgia, while Gianni runs up and down between ovens and mixers.
Customers come and go at a good pace, the comings and goings of cars on the crossroads of Liscia di Vacca is just for them. On the other hand, the perfect gift for the holidays seems to be the gastronomic one. «We open in March and close at the end of January - concludes Franca -. For more than 10 months we do not see the light outside the laboratory. When customers tell us that it's not Christmas if panettone and chocolates prepared by Gianni are missing on the table, I'm moved . That's why we're here at work on Christmas Eve too."
