How Italians sold ice cream to the masses in Vienna

Residents of the Austrian capital have queued for more than 130 years to sample the Italian ice cream of the Molin-Pradel family, one of Vienna's oldest gelato dynasties.

More than a century later, ice cream consumption among Austrians is higher than in neighbouring Italy.

It was entrepreneurs like Arcangelo Molin-Pradel, born into poverty in northern Italy's Dolomite Alps, who were among the first to benefit from the sweet tooth of the Viennese.

The high cost of sugar, milk and refrigeration -- years before electric freezing was invented -- meant ice cream was long reserved for aristocrats. But ingenious Italians like the Molin-Pradels changed that, producing ice cream based on water and fruit extract.

In pic: Silvio Molin-Pradel shows the picture of his great-great-grandfather in his Ice-cream saloon at Schwedenplatz square in Vienna

Vienna became one of the ice cream makers' first destinations outside Italy, says Maren Moehring, a history professor at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

The Italian migrants' "frozen stuff" as some called it quickly became popular with ordinary Viennese.

In 1894, the ice cream makers got the right to open shops in Vienna rather than just selling ice cream from carts.

At the central, tree-lined square in the heart of Vienna, the family still produces artisanal ice cream.

Each day in summer, about 5,000 customers order from dozens of flavours, ranging from traditional ones like chocolate and vanilla to avocado, lavender and hemp.

Out of roughly 370 ice cream shops in Austria, about 40 are still run by Italians. Its data also show that Austria boasts an average per capita consumption of more than 60 scoops per year, or about eight litres of ice cream -- more than in Italy, with an average consumption of six litres.