Gelato of the Day

The plan is to eat a lot of gelato in Italy (at least every day) and to chronicle our gelato experiences here. After all, half the reason to come to Italy is for the food.

Sept 8 – Florence: Per told us about his favorite place and practically made us promise to try the flavor “cookies.” When we found this place we knew it was a real gem. The gelato is creamier than any we’ve had so far and the choice of flavors was excellent. Jen ordered Cookies and After Eight (mint chocolate). I got Peach and Ricotta with Fig. And the winner is….it’s a tie between Peach and After Eight with Cookies getting an honorable mention (this is a scientific process after all). So now we have a problem – a tie is not in the spirit of our competition – we’ve got to find some gelato even better than these two now. Perhaps tomorrow when we sample Melissa’s favorite place - Grom.

Sept 7 – Florence: Today we saw the biggest collection of gelato flavors ever. Per & Melissa took us to this place after lunch. It was so hard to pick. Jen had Torone and Whipped Cream (it’s a flavor). I had marmalade and Zuppa de Inglese (English soup, more like cake and ice cream). The marmalade was the big winner – although the English soup was a tough competitor. We’re starting to think about how to pick the gelato of the trip. Per suggested we have we hold a tournament like the NCAA. First round is Cinnamon vs. Tiramisu – who will be the winner?

Sept 6 – Florence: The gelato today was sub-par all around. We had it twice, but both times at the same place (a small café on the corner by our hotel). For one their policy is “no tastes” – so we should have known. We would not have gone back except they were the only open place the second time we got gelato. The flavor of the day is Rum. Amaretto was a close second (it was the day of liqueurs).

Sept 5 - Florence: This is going to seem really strange, but today's flavor of the day is vanilla. Kristin picked it, with no expectations that it would compete, but just in the mood for some good vanilla. Today we also tried banana, pineapple, and mint chip, but it was the vanilla that stood out. This was no ordinary vanilla. Rich and creamy for sure, but it also had little bits of something yummy in it, we think maybe pieces of waffle cone. This is maybe the best vanilla ice cream ever - it's the best gelato of the trip so far. We also did something new today, got our gelato in cones - yum!


Sept 4 - Rome: We had gelato twice today, but it was the second time that was really good. It was after dinner near the Pantheon. And the flavor is Cinnamon (manela). It was so yummy and creamy that we both got it. Jen was in search of pineapple (aranas) but didn't really find a good one, so it took us three tries to pick this gelateria. Then we both samples a ton of flavors before finding Cinnamon (yum). When we went to pay we found out they gave you a free bottle of water with your gelato (that's worth 1-2 euro) so it made it even more worth it.

Sept 3 - Rome: It's hard to find a good gelato in the city.... just kidding! There are gelato bars every 200 feet or so - kind of like the ABC stores of Waikiki. We only had gelato once today (I know, we're lagging...) but it was soooo good. Even though Il Gelato had some very unique flavors (we tasted white fig!), Kristin went with a standard Chocolate and Hazelnut - which was pretty tasty; but my out-of-the-ordinary Ginger and Cinnamon was the winner of the day (with Hazelnut a close second, taking the Honorable Mention category). We'll try to get in at least two gelato contests tomorrow - stay tuned!

Sept 2 - Rome: Today's gelato of the day was had at a little cafe just around the corner from our hotel. We stopped there for lunch and then got gelato for the walk back to the room. Jen got coconut which put my lemon to shame (and the lemon was really good).

Our second gelato of the day was at Giolitti (a really famous place near Parliament) and it was great, they had two huge coolers of flavors, many we could not decipher, but although we had four flavors between us (pistachio, chocolate, torone, and cheescake), none could beat the coconut gelatto from earlier today. This place was unusual because you paid first and then took your receipt to the gelato counter to order. Also you could not eat there unless you got table service which cost twice as much for the same thing.

Sept 1 - Rome: We had our first Roman gelato at Gelato Piu, just outside the Pantheon. Kristin picked the tiramisu flavor which edged out Jen's pistachio for the win.

Aug 31 - Chicago: We knew we needed to start the trip off right, so the first "gelato" was Hagan Daas in the O'hare Airport. Jen picked the "Vanilla Honey Bee" which was awesome.