It has been a tradition for many years among Almeloans: taking an evening walk to the Talamini ice cream parlor when the first spring sun comes up. It will only be spring in Almelo when Talamini opens, was the adage in the city. That’s how it was when grandfather Vittore Talamini opened the business in 1941, that’s how it was when his son Gianpiero (‘Piet’) took over the store, and that’s how it was when his son Giancarlo took over.
The Talamini’s are a family of ice cream makers from the Dolomites. For years it went like this: in the winter you were born as Talamini in Italy, in the summer, when the money had to be earned, you saw the light of day in the Netherlands. Giancarlo was just in between: he was born in April 1973. Father had already gone to the Netherlands, mother stayed behind in Italy. Thus it was that Vodo di Cadore was listed in his passport as the place of birth.
In the thirties the Talamini’s moved to the Netherlands in large numbers. Don’t ask why the Netherlands, says Giancarlo’s cousin Bernardo Talamini. One went, the rest followed. A village away they all went to Germany.’ From Rijswijk to Enschede and from Deventer to Groningen; ice cream parlors sprung up everywhere with the Talamini name on the facade. Family members are still distinguished from each other by the name of the city in which their business is located.
Giancarlo (Talamini Almelo) once dreamed of living as a gardener in the nature of the Dolomites. ‘But making ice cream was in his blood’, says Bernardo (Talamini Groningen). ‘You help the business from an early age. It’s part of us.’ Giancarlo himself said in 2019 to Tubantia: ‘Making ice cream is a form of therapy for me. When I’m making ice cream, problems and worries disappear.’
He had taken over the business from his father ‘Piet’, under whose wings Talamini experienced golden times. Giancarlo’s beginnings were promising. He was an excellent ice cream maker, Bernardo says. But in an interview with Tubantia Giancarlo himself indicated where the sore point was. ‘Entrepreneurship is in me, but I sometimes find it complicated.’ He waited too long to make investments, and other ice cream shops in town didn’t sit still.
Which certainly also played a role: the death of his father in 2016, after a long illness. Three years earlier, his mother had also died. His marriage was on the rocks. He was alone. And then came corona. He closed the business to reflect. What now?
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He regularly asked Pietro (Talamini Deventer) or Riccardo (Talamini Enschede) for advice on adjustments or new projects. His father Elio had said: ‘We Talamini’s all came to the Netherlands for the same reason. One is doing well, the other less so. Then you take care of each other.’
But no matter how much the first spring sun of 2022 shone, the doors of Talamini remained closed. Two years of lockdowns had taken all the fun out of his job.
No one will ever know what the future of Talamini Almelo would have looked like. Giancarlo had been feeling unwell for a while. The GP had referred him to the cardiologist, but that came too late. On August 6, he died in his business of a heart attack, aged 49.
Giancarlo Talamini was cremated in Almelo and his urn was brought to Italy and placed with his parents in the family grave in Vodo di Cadore, his village in the Dolomites. In the meantime, a spontaneous memorial site had arisen in front of the ice cream parlor in Almelo. His obituary hung on the window. It read: “God has not promised us a peaceful journey, but a safe arrival.”