Eating My Way Around Italy II: Gelato

Italy is very well known for making (some of) the best Gelato in the World and -me being a huge ice cream fan- I went there to do some tastings and find out if it was true...turns out, it is!

I arrived in Italy determined to confirm they're masters of gelato-making, to do that, I was all ready, peprared and willing to try a different gelato everyday; it sounds like a difficult task, I know, well...it sort of was.

Giolitti Gelato

The 2-flavor rule made it all easier (and better!) cause that way, I got to try 2 different flavors a day. I was in traveling through Italy for 2 weeks and I did manage to have gelato pretty much everyday; I'd only skip my gelato duties when it was really, really cold.

Now, thanks to the Food Tour I took early on my trip, I was able to tell fake gelato from the real one, which was awesome cause, when you're on a quest to find the best gelato, the least you wanna do is try fake stuff. So, I can honestly say I am sure every gelato I tried was real (traditionally made and with natural instead of artificial flavors, that is).

 

Giolitti, the most traditional gelateria in all of Rome



Gelato Tourist Trap


There's obviously a wide range of flavors to go crazy over, so I did my best to try as many different ones as I could, although I have to confess I sometimes failed since I did find my favorite flavor very soon: Nocciola (hazelnut)!

These are a few of the most popular flavors: Panna (cream), Cioccolato (chocolate), which can be "regular" cioccolato or cioccolato fondente (dark chocolate), Limone (lemon), Pistacchio, Frutti di Bosco (fruits of the forest), Caffè, Fragola (strawberries), Cocco (coconut), Stracciatella (chocolate chip), Banana, Menta (mint), Ricotta Stregata ("bewitched ricotta"- a type of cheese), Nocciola (hazlenut).

 

Delicious Gelato!

So, the conclusion to this exhaustive investigation is that Italy, for sure, has the most amazing and luscious gelato in the World, particularly in Rome. So, if you wanna have something soft, creamy and full of flavor, Rome is the place to go! 

If, however, Rome -or Europe, for that matter- is too far away from you and you're in America, you can always go to Bar Harbor in Maine (US), there you will find a pretty close second-best!