Brain freeze: This Italian city tried to ban ice cream and it backfired spectacularly

It all started when Milan's commissioner of security and civil protection, Marco Granelli, announced that, beginning on May 17, the sale of food and drinks outside after midnight would be prohibited.

According to the city government, the goal was to keep the peace in a dozen or so of the city's busiest neighborhoods, letting locals not be disturbed by nighttime raucous.

The law forbade establishments from serving food and drinks in outdoor areas between 00:30 am and 6:00 am, Monday to Friday, and between 1:30 am and 6:00 am on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Milanese city official justified his decision on social media: “Our goal is to find a balance between social life and leisure, and the peace and well-being of the locals. We believe in a city full of life, where young and old can share spaces”.

However, the new law resulted in controversy in Italy, where ice cream or 'gelato' is king. Italians consume over 320,000 tons of this frosty treat every year, according to numbers from the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and cited by Spanish newspaper El País,

These numbers show that the average Italian citizen eats 12 kilos (around 26 pounds) of ice cream every year.

Unsurprisingly, the Milan City Council was forced to backtrack the controversial, anti-ice cream proposal. The only restriction kept was the ban on selling alcohol after midnight.

This isn't the first time the Milan municipal government has tried to crack down on midnight ice cream enjoyers. Back in 2013, former mayor Giuliano Pisapia (pictured) unsuccessfully tried a similar law.

However, local protests and overall resistance against the measure pushed by the City Hall was so big that they even adopted a name: “Occupy Gelato”.

Ice cream, including gelato, is part of Italian culture. The Mediterranean country has about 39,000 stores where you can buy artisanal ice cream, including 9,300 ice cream parlors, 12,000 pastry shops, and about 18,000 bars.

The business might be frosty, but the cash is hot! In 2023, the Italian ice cream industry reached the benchmark of 3,000 million euros in profit.

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