A cup of ice cream, please! At first glance, Gel Aut looks like a mobile ice cream shop on a colorful Ape van. But if you stop by for a little while, you’ll realize that the ice cream here is much more than it seems. The ice cream is served by young men and women participating in a social and vocational inclusion program promoted by the La Pietra d’Angolo Cooperative. Everyone has their own role: some prepare the cups, some serve the ice cream, some greet customers, and some handle payments. The tasks are simple, but they convey something important.

Behind every cup lies a learning journey that leads to independence, confidence, and a sense of belonging within the community.

Educators observe and guide, stepping in when necessary and gradually making room for personal initiative. It’s not about simulating a work activity, but about truly experiencing it, among people and within the community’s spaces. Gel Aut was created with the goal of offering people with autism spectrum disorder and mild-to-moderate cognitive disabilities a concrete opportunity to acquire skills and experience work in real-world settings. After an initial phase of training and experimentation, the project took shape in the summer of 2025 and has now become a recognizable presence in many town squares throughout the Empolese and Lower Valdarno regions.

In recent months, Gel Aut’s Ape has participated in over thirty events, including festivals, gatherings, and public initiatives. This journey continues to grow, and this year the project has a new vehicle equipped as a fully-fledged mobile workspace.

An ice cream becomes an opportunity to exchange a few words, put oneself to the test, and feel part of something.

But perhaps the most meaningful part of the project lies in connecting with people. It is in these moments that educational work intersects with everyday life and takes on a tangible form. Rita, who accompanies the project on its travels, describes it simply: “It’s a bit like going back to the first job I had when I was 14. And it’s always wonderful to meet people who are happy and satisfied with this project wherever we go.”

The local community has also chosen to support this initiative. The Empolese Valdarno Valdelsa Health Authority contributed to the development of the program, recognizing Gel Aut as a concrete tool for inclusion and training. Alongside this collaboration is the partnership with Sammontana, which has decided to provide its ice cream to support the initiative, transforming a corporate partnership into a gesture of social responsibility rooted in the local community.

Gel Aut is growing within a network of relationships that weaves together inclusion, work, and community, transforming a simple act into a shared experience.

It is no coincidence that we meet Gel Aut in Santa Croce sull’Arno, at the end of a day dedicated to the care and assistance of the elderly and those who are not self-sufficient, organized by La Pietra d’Angolo. Here, in one of the Italian municipalities with the highest proportion of foreign residents—a situation linked to a complex phase of integration and transition from a local economy once based on a high concentration of tanning industries—La Pietra d’Angolo has been operating for years through services dedicated to inclusion, hospitality, and care. Gel Aut is, in fact, growing within an existing network of relationships that continues to expand.

However, the traveling initiative is just one step along the way. The cooperative is working to open a production facility and a permanent gelateria, with the goal of ensuring the project’s continuity and creating increasingly stable employment opportunities.

Gel Aut’s most distinctive flavor isn’t that of crema or stracciatella, but that of a community that finds its identity in a simple, shared gesture.

“People’s response confirms to us every day the value of what we’re building,” explains President Michela De Vita. “Behind Gel Aut lies a significant investment—educational, economic, and organizational. But seeing the attention, participation, and affection with which the community embraces the project truly makes all the work we’ve done so far worthwhile.”