It is one of the emblems of the city of Cádiz. The Topolino has been part of the heart of the busy and elegant Calle Ancha since the 1950s, where, no matter the time of day or night, there are always people at the door of the Salón Italiano, also known as Los Italianos. The star of the counter is an ice cream in the shape of a wafer cone crowned by a scoop of cream covered with a layer of hot chocolate that, when cooled, becomes crunchy. Both locals and visitors know this well, curious to try this treat served at this establishment, located next to the Plaza de San Antonio. In this place, an Italian couple, Arturo Campo and Iola Mosena, opened their ice cream business in 1940. They had tried their luck in Madrid, where they arrived in 1936 from Forno di Zoldo, in northern Italy, to set up an ice cream shop on Calle Fuencarral. Shortly after, the Civil War broke out and they had to close until the conflict ended in 1939. By then, someone had told them about Cádiz, a small port city in southern Spain, with narrow streets and short distances, and they decided to try their luck. The Madrid business was left in the hands of a relative. In 1940, they opened a striking salon on Calle Ancha, one of the main arteries of the historic center. The place, which occupied the former site of a bank called Los Previsores del Porvenir, had tables where customers could enjoy the ice creams. They started by offering six varieties. Quite a revolution for the time, recalls the Gaditan Joaquín Campo, 50 years old, grandson of the founders and manager of the establishment.
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Few things have changed since then. They even maintain the business opening season, from March to October. “That was when my grandparents returned to Italy. They lived in an area with a great ice cream tradition. They spent the winter away and came back to Cádiz to open in spring,” explains the current co-owner of the establishment along with his brother, Arturo. It was in the 1950s when his grandfather came up with the Topolino, which in Italian means little mouse. Although Arturo Campo had worked as a carpenter when he was young, Joaquín clarifies that the one who really learned the ice cream trade was Iola Mosena, during a stay in Budapest in the 1920s. “He named it precisely after Mickey Mouse, as this character is known in Italy, and the chocolate-covered ice cream head reminded him of the famous mouse,” he recounts.
The recipe has remained the same since then: a wafer made in Cantabria, a scoop of cream ice cream, and a hot dark chocolate coating that hardens when cooled. “We haven’t changed anything because there was no need; it continues to be a bestseller,” says Campo, who recalls the Topolinada with which they celebrate the reopening of the place every year, an event where the ice cream shop gives away a thousand topolinos and gathers long lines around the establishment. “It is a marked date on the calendar for the people of Cádiz,” adds this ice cream maker, who took over from his father, Gianni Campo, who in turn inherited the trade from the founders. He admits it is a demanding job. “Every day I am in the workshop at 7:45 in the morning making ice cream, with the same formulation as my grandparents. From opening to closing, I have no days off. These are eight very hard months of work, as we open every day. If the weather is good, because this is still a very seasonal business, I can make about 250 liters daily and around 200 topolinos.” He learned what hospitality meant as soon as he passed the university entrance exam: “I told my father I was going camping for a few days with friends in Conil. Very seriously, he told me to go for the weekend, but that on Monday he wanted me at the ice cream shop and that camping was over. I don’t know what summer vacation is.” Since then, he has stayed in the workshop.
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Currently, the menu exceeds thirty flavors, from classic mantecados, such as chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut, cream, or nougat, to a wide variety of fruit sorbets. For a year now, they have added another novelty: each customer can make their own Topolino on the spot, with the flavor they like. The price is 2.90 euros. Despite the demands of this job, he stays with the happy face with which people enter and leave the ice cream shop. “The Topolino is ordered with a smile.”
