NESTLING beside the old railway bridge on Newport's Bridge Street is an Aladdin's cave of colour.

The windows are filled with shining panettone wrappers.

Plump marzipan teddy bears lounge on heart-shaped cakes, and fantastic concoctions of whipped cream froth against the window-panes like wave crests.

Inside, bouquets of flowers have been fashioned from sugared almonds. Huge, tiered cakes, adorned with putti and roses and bunches of grapes, have been painstakingly assembled from sticky, black chocolate.

Rows of grappa bottles stand gleaming on the counters; coloured sweets and Amaretto biscuits lie stashed in huge glass cases; and a bride and groom, lovingly moulded in milk chocolate, exchange kisses.

Gemelli's Desserts is one of two bakers' shops opened in Newport by a set of twins from the Italian city of Caserata.

It's an apt name, as gemelli is actually the Italian word for twins.

It was ten years ago when Sergio and Pasquale Cinotti left behind their father's bakery to learn some English in preparation for life in the hotel and restaurant trade.

The twins never imagined then that Gwent would one day be their home, or that the strings binding them to Newport would become so hard to break.

Sergio and Pasquale still go back to Italy every year, but their father, Francesco, is now retiring, and the boys have told him to sell the family business.

Newport is where the brothers' future lies, and their energies are focused on opening an Italian caf in the city centre later this year.

Sergio said: "Newport means a lot to me. I came over just to study, but I liked it here.

"We used to bake cakes, and people liked them and said to us, 'why not open up a bakery over here?'

"So, that's what we did.

"When we arrived we had nothing, but the people of Newport have helped me and my brother to make all this."

He is proud of the relationships he has built up with restaurants in Bristol, Cardiff and London, and he is exhilarated by the challenge of building up the business.

Pasquale is now married, with a baby of six months and another child on the way.

Ask Sergio what makes a good bakery or a good caf, and the answer is disarmingly simple.

"You must try to be nice - always nice - with your customers and your staff. "That's the secret - if you are happy in what you do, then that will show through."

Sergio produces what he claims is the oldest cake in Italy - pastera.

The recipe comes from Naples, near where the twins' father grew up. When Sergio worked as a pastry chef in Venice, his friends in the kitchen were so desperate to get their hands on the recipe that Sergio took to making the mixture at home.

But there is one ingredient to good cookery more important than wheat or orange zest or Ricotta cheese. "It is more than skill and experience.

"You must love it.

"When I was little, my mum used to go out and I would be left to look after the tomato sauce.

"I used to dip in my bread and taste it - maybe it needs more salt, maybe it needs some pepper or onion.

"I used to try new things because I was curious, because I already loved it."

In July, Sergio will be flying to Rimini to compete against 50 or 60 of the finest chocolatiers in the world in carving white and black chocolate.

It is this art - where chocolate replaces the sculptor's marble - that Sergio and Pasquale enjoy most.

"When I look at what I've made, it takes me back to when I used to work in my dad's bakery and maybe my friend went out to play football and I had to stay in to bake or help make a cake.

"It makes the sacrifice seem worth while," laughs Sergio.

He sees chocolate sculpture as an extension of his "passion for design", and points proudly to a copy of a Michelangelo oil painted by him and his father.

But the religious emblems in Sergio's chocolate sculptures are also important to him, as he is a devout Roman Catholic.

"When I cook, I'm praying.

"When I'm baking something, and it comes out better than I expected, I say a prayer.

"This is because I think God is working in everything we do.

"When I was learning with my dad, we used to start and finish the day with prayers."

Sergio and Pasquale come from a long line of bakers, and Sergio would like someone to carry on the family tradition, but he insists that his kids will make their own choices.

Sergio has already passed on some of his skills, having taught cookery at the University of Wales College, Newport.

"I taught maybe 25 people and eight of them loved it - and they will go on to become cooks.

"When you love it, you just want to learn and learn."