JenV

On a related gelato note, there has been a rash of gelato shops opening in LA recently (a great development IMO), two that I have noticed are at the SM Promenade and in Bev Hills on Little Santa Monica, which I HIGHLY recommend to any fodors gelato lovers in LA. It is the best gelato I've ever had in America and comparable to great gelato in Italy. Banana is my fav! If anyone else has tried it what do you think?

WillTravel

Marilyn, I'm going to Florence, Venice, and Rome. I have read so many things that I haven't taken note of which gelato to get, but I will pay attention now. I know many recommend San Crispini in Rome, but I'd like to hear everyone's recommendations.

Marilyn

Will, you will be deluged with recommendations for those 3 cities. In all my times in Florence, I never tried Vivoli until my last trip. I must say I thought it was one of the very best I've ever tasted. It's located at 7/r, Via Isole delle Stinche, a side street near Santa Croce.

My other favorites are in San Gimignano and Orvieto.

Enjoy your trip!

flanneruk

Grasshopper and WillTravel:

Keep the faith.

This ice cream fetish is something I've never understood. If you want the taste of strawberries (for example), get proper stawberries, in season, and eat them as soon as they're picked.

Messing good stawberries (which abound in Italy) about with sugar and ice just ruins good food. Making ice cream from the tasteless, forced, out of season strawberries Italians would otherwise ship off to the barbarians in northern Europe just produces sweet yuck.

Italian farmers produce some of the world's finest fruit, which its markets sell at the time God meant it to be eaten.

Americans should remember that Rome started its slide from being global superpower pretty much the day its decadent citizens started abusing that fruit by turning it into ice cream.

111op

A standard recommendation in Rome appears to be Giolitti. That's where I went. It was enjoyable, but I prefer Berthillon. There's also a standard recommendation in Florence, which I read about in an old Fodor's guidebook. But that was more than five years ago, so I've forgotten what it's called.

If you find yourself in NYC, Cones on Bleecker offers a very dense ice-cream which is very good. Another interesting one is Il Laboratorio del Gelato, on Orchard Street, started by the same guy who started Ciao Bello.

Eloise

You might want to have a look at Grinisa's gelato list on slowtrav:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/restau...to_grinisa.htm

Grinisa also posts here, and she is one of the most knowledgeable people about Italy.

111op

I just looked at the list. The one in Florence I went to was probably Vivoli. It rings a bell for some reason.

The list doesn't include any Naples locations. I'm wondering which the store I went to last summer was. It was located in the historic district and is another one of these famous placees.

NYCFoodSnob

I can't imagine a life without a sweet tooth. When my mother and grandmother baked (my GM was a professional), I was the child helping out, asking to lick the spoon. I still love to lick it.

I don't keep sweets in the house unless I have guests. The temptation to nibble is too overwhelming. But I do have dessert every time I have friends over for dinner or dine out. Dessert with a wonderful <i>il vino passito</i> is one of my favorite courses.

I adore rich ice cream but rarely indulge. The calories and fat content are insane.

A day in Italy without a small cup of gelato is not quite as much fun as the day of indulgence.

Lexma90

I'm a somewhat-picky dessert person - I'll only get it if it's something I really like. And in Italy, most of the time, I pass up the restaurant desserts for the best local gelateria.

Why is Italian gelato so good? For me, it's the quality of the ingredients and the absolutely fresh taste. I love the fruit flavors (the melon has pieces of melon), the unusual flavors like riso (rice) and coconut, and find the chocolate-based flavors often too rich and sweet for me (the coffee flavor, IMO, is a great combination with a scoop of a fruit flavor). I've had gelato in the U.S., and even at supposed Italian gelaterias, it still never compares.

I will say, we hunt out those gelaterias that state they make their own gelato, and I feel that makes for the best-tasting stuff.

Marilyn

One more point, WillTravel. Sometimes the flavor makes a difference. As you will have gathered from this thread, there are many exotic flavors that you never see in the US. So you will have to indulge in quite a bit of tasting to be sure which side of this fence you are on.

Also, there is a difference between granita, which is a sort of (usually fruit) ice and gelato, which is the rich ice cream. In a good-sized gelateria they will often be in separate cases.

My gold standard is nocciola which is hazelnut. This is the flavor I compare from gelateria to gelateria to evaluate how good the stuff is. (And it is never really terrible, just in case the gelateria is generally poor. Hate to waste those calories on inferior product!)

At Vivoli I had some sort of orange/cream flavor that was out of this world, especially combined with another scoop of rich, dark chocolate. Not a standard flavor and I can't remember the exact name.

You will have to give us a full report when you return.

Budman

I was a sceptic too with all this talk about how great Italian gelato was until I first tried some. It was a small stand in Montepulciano across the street from a butcher shop.

We were unable to match the taste and quality anywhere else in Italy. It was sooooooooo good. The ice cream balls here in the States don't even compare.

JudyC

I am afraid I fail to appreciate Gelato in Italy.

However, there is absolutely nothing could compare with a bunch of perfectly ripe Moscato grapes or freshly squeezed Blood orange juice.