Last Summer we traveled for months in Italy. I normally don’t write about food but I couldn’t help it to talk about the Italian food we ate. Of course there’s pizza and pasta but I’ll get to that another time, let’s have dessert first.
Our real love on this trip was the gelato 🍨 We both love ice cream but gelato takes it to a whole new level. Now you have to know your limits when you eat this stuff and try to maintain at one scoop per day. Otherwise by the time you get home you’ll have to buy new pants 😛 I figured when in Rome do as the Romans do so we had some gelato. This is when we decided to do the 🍨Gelato Quest🍨 where we would travel the rest of Italy looking for the best gelato ever!
Our first stop was Milan where the gelato was good but not knock your socks off good. The only memorable one was a champagne flavored one. Then we headed east to Venice and here was the hardest place to find any that were good because it’s nothing but gelato made for the tourists. So don’t waste your calories there. By the time we got to Bologna we thought that gelato must be pretty much the same all over Italy but boy were we wrong 😑 We started out at a small shop called Cremeria Cavour and the gelato here was heavenly. I don’t think I have tasted anything so smooth, creamy and delicious in my mouth 😋 It was so good we had to go back twice while there. Now that the bar was set we tried to top that one.
If you find yourself in Florence you have to careful of where you buy your gelato. We read there are actually “gelato” scams in the city. You go into a shop and ask (or point if you don’t speak Italian) for a scoop of say chocolate chip and then they charge you 10€ a cone when normally it’s about 3€. No where is the price listed only the flavors. Once you have the cone in your hand they got you. What are you going to do, give it back and say no thanks.
Another thing we found out is the best gelato is not piled high in the the pans laid out so you can see all the flavors. The premium stuff is hidden under a stainless lid in a cooler and the flavors are on the daily board. So don’t be lured into a shoppe by all the pretty colors!
When it comes to flavors the Italians have the best ones! Of course my favorites were amarena (black cherry), pistachio and stracciatella (vanilla w/chocolate shavings). Of course we tried different flavors everywhere including various chocolates, cinnamon and nocciola (hazelnut). Believe it or not they even have a Viagra gelato that is blue in color but made of African herbs that are supposed to give you an aphrodisiac effect 🤭or so they say!
Now that we knew the scoop (pun intended) we continued on our journey. So far Cremeria Cavour was leading the pack but we had another favorite in Bologna too. And if you happen to be near the Duomo in Florence stop by Gelateria Eduardo il gelato biologico and get a scoop of cinnamon or pistachio 😋It wasn’t until we got to Rome that we found another really great one called Frigidarium that had the best chocolate flavors. Don’t be scared off by the long lines because it’s worth it. Now that you know the scoop about Italian gelatos let’s go get some 🍨
Our rankings and location
1) Cremeria Cavour – Bologna
2) La Sorbetteria Castiglione – Bologna
3) Frigidarium - Rome
4) Gelateria Eduardo il gelato biologico- Florence
5) Gelateria Nice - Siena