Are you sure its Autumn?

Temperature

I have just returned to Alicante after 6 weeks in the UK for my little sister's wedding and to spend some time with my parents.  During my time there, the weather started out OK and we had some lovely sunshine for the wedding, but it soon changed and back came the eternal grey skies and rainy days that I remember.  I even bought a pair of wellies!

So I was very glad to get back to the wonderful light and blue skies of Alicante and to t-shirt weather in October!

The nights are a little fresher (which means I don't have to sleep with the air conditioning on!) but I can put my umbrella back in its drawer.  You don't usually need a heavy coat until January here, and even then there are sometimes freak hot days when you can go down to the beach!  It does get chilly in February to April but not below about 5oC.  I have never seen it snow in Alicante but some snow does lay on the hills around when there are heavy falls.

I am going into such detail because people who are thinking of visiting or living here during the winter always ask me what the weather is like and if it's cold.  That's relative depending on the country you are coming from.  Many people retire to Benidorm or spend the winter here because it has such an excellent climate and there's just bag loads sunshine which always brings a smile to your face!

Ice cream all year round

When I was recently in my home town in the UK, which is a typical British seaside resort, I kept on hearing the tinkling tunes of the ice cream van going around the neighbourhoods.  It reminded me of when I was younger, hearing the van come around and asking my parents for 30p, which was what a small cone of vanilla Mr Whippy cost back then, then dashing out with all the other kids on the street to the ice cream man.

Now, here, in Alicante, one of my favourite places to get an ice cream is Livanti.  It's Italian style gelato and all made on the premises.  They offer wonderful flavours with fruits or many different mixes with types of chocolate.

We usually pick up a small tub (as shown in the photo below) and you can choose a couple of different flavours.  They will stack it up and then put a small wafer cone on the top.  Ice cream is OK all year round here.  They (we) just love it any time.

It always makes me giggle how once people pick up their ice cream the pace suddenly gets slower.  We do it too... we come out of the shop, hang around a bit outside stabilising the ice cream (i.e. scooping up all the overhanging parts that are about to dribble), then we stroll around the barrio (neighbourhood) or wherever we are going making little pauses on the way to converse or eat a difficult part, our attention always on the tub and its delicous contents.  Enjoy!

Livanti is just near the St Nicholas Cathedral, in the historic part of town.  See the green arrow in the map below.

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What are your favourite flavours of ice cream?