Gelaterium restaurants in Italy
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Giolitti
This started as a dairy in 1900 and still keeps the hoards happy with succulent sorbets and creamy combinations. Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn swung by in Roman Holiday and it used to deliver marron glacé to Pope John Paul II.
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Grom
The first-ever outlet of this Slow Food–affiliated ice cream, renowned for organic flavours such as green tea, was started here in Turin. There’s another branch at Via Accademia delle Scienze 4, which keeps the same hours.
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La Fonte della Salute
It might not be quite the ‘fountain of health’ of the name, but the fruit flavours are so delicious they must surely be good for the soul.
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Gelateria della Palma
A warning to parents: don't take kids in here unless you want to spend a lot. Like an ice-cream version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, this brightly-coloured gelateria believes in customer choice, offering up to 100 different flavours. The specialities are creamy mousse gelati and the meringata varieties with bits of meringue.
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Gelateria di Piazza
Master gelato-maker Sergio Dondoli uses only the choicest ingredients to create his creamy and icy delights. Get into the local swing of things with a Crema di Santa Fina (saffron cream) gelato or a Vernaccia sorbet.
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Gelateria Natale
One of the best ice-creams in Lecce is available here. You might have to queue but this will give you time to choose. It’s also a fabulous confectioner, gleaming with jewel-like treats, truffles, panna cotta and dark chocolate cakes that pool like oil slicks on golden plates.
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La Sorbetteria Castiglione
Locals queue up day and night at this award-winning gelateria, which focuses all of its creative energy on 18 flavours. Taste the gianduia (chocolate-hazelnut ice cream with whole hazelnuts inside) and you’ll be an instant convert.
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Kopa Kabana
Come here for fresh gelato made by self-proclaimed ice-cream master Fabio (we're pleased to concur). There's a second location at Via San Pietro 20, close to the Pinacoteca Nazionale.
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Checco er Carettiere
Something of a food complex, this is a restaurant, bakery, gelateria and osteria. With a swinging 1950s feel, the restaurant is wood-panelled throughout and terracotta-floored. Roman dishes to savour include saltimbocca alla romana or bombolotti (ridged tube pasta) all'amatriciana. The osteria is a small, appealing place with a few daily specials. The cakes at the café (07:00-01:00) are delicious, and the ice cream good too.
The walls are smothered in black-and-white photos of celebrities. Some tables are tucked into alcoves for intimate parties, or there's a large convivial room with wooden columns and an outside patio. There's a special smoking room between this and…
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Grom
This Torinese chain’s gentle attempt at world domination (there are branches on Broadway and Bleecker) is no reason to dismiss its wares. The pale and fragrant pistachio is made from nuts sourced from the slopes of Etna, a rich gianduja mixes roasted Piedmontese hazelnuts with Venezuelan chocolate, and all sorbets and granita come from organic, seasonal fruit. Don’t be afraid to ask for a taste, and do upgrade to Battifollo biscotti in lieu of spoons.
reviewed
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Grom
Langhe hazelnuts for bacio (chocolate with hazelnut), organic free-range eggs for real egg cream, and Amalfi lemons for sorbet: Grom takes your tastebuds on a Slow Food tour of Italy. Fair trade sourcing helped win Turin-based Grom a coveted ‘Master of Slow Food’ designation, but with seasonal flavours like white peach with dark chocolate chips, you may be tempted to give it another honorary title: lunch.
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Alaska Gelateria
Outlandish organic gelato: enjoy a Slow Food scoop of house-roasted local pistachio, or two of the tangy Sicilian lemon with vaguely minty Sant’Erasmo carciofi. Kids who choose fresh strawberry granita (shaved ice) can top the confection with a leaf plucked from the basil plant on the counter.
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Da Roberto
Owners Roberto and Eugenia made the sea change from Belluno in the Veneto, an area famed for its skilled gelato makers. The proof is in the cone. Utterly superlative are the gran biscotti, crema della nonna and the Mozart chocolate and hazelnut combo. The semi-freddi (partially frozen desserts) are also made fresh on the premises and legitimise any gluttonous impulse.
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Chocolat
As this slick-interiored gelateria’s name suggests, it plays flavour favourites. Variations on the chocolate theme include milk, dark, white, chilli, gianduja (chocolate- hazelnut) and cinnamon. People have been known to eat a crusty smoked salmon panini or a slice of fragrant home-baked almond cake here, but the crowds that queue out on the road come for the cups and cones.
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Chalet Ciro Mergellina
This iconic seaside chalet sells everything from coffee and pastries to crêpes, but the reason to head here is for brioche con gelato, a sweetened bun stuffed with delectable ice cream and topped with a dollop of panna (cream). Pay inside, choose your flavours at the street-side counter, and then kill the cals with a bayside saunter.
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Fantasia Gelati
Many hardcore gelato aficionados swear that Gay-odin does better cream-based flavours, but they'll also tell you that when it comes to fruit-flavoured sorbets, no one comes close to this place. Make up your own mind with a serve of the dangerously dense cuore nero (dark chocolate). The gelato caldo (hot gelato) flavours aren't actually warm – just creamier. There's another handy branch in Vomero.
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Al Settimo Gelo
The name’s a play on ‘seventh heaven’ and it’s not a far-fetched title for one of Rome’s finest gelaterie with a devotion to the best possible natural ingredients. Try the Greek ice cream or cardamom made to an Afghan recipe.
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Gelati DiVini
You’ve never had ice cream like this before! DiVini (which is a play on the words ‘divine’ and ‘wine’ in Italian) makes wine-flavoured ice creams like marsala, muscat and traghetto d’acqua, along with exceptional offerings like rose, fennel and wild mint, all derived from the original plant.
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Alberto Pica
This is a historic Roman gelateria, open since 1960. In summer, it offers flavours such as fragoline di bosco (wild strawberry) and petali di rosa (rose petal), but rice flavours are specialities year-round (resembling frozen rice pudding – yum).
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Riva Reno
The gelati at this bright Bolognian gelateria has a uniquely soft, smooth texture, and flavours are similarly innovative: praline and amaretti, toasted pine nuts, and saffron crème with burnt caramel sesame seeds. Can’t choose? The persimmon sorbet is soothingly simple.
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Scimmia
The best of the much-loved Scimmia outlets, locals flock here rain, hail or shine for creamy made-on-the-premises ice cream. Go the zabaglione (made with eggs and sweet Marsala wine) or a tangy orange sorbet, and swing your hips to samba on the Latino-flavoured square.
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Massaro 2
Smaller and more modern than its sister restaurant, Massaro, at Massaro 2 you'll find fewer cakes but delicious ice cream, great coffee, sandwiches and futuristic décor in shiny aluminium. The Via Brasa branch has window stools for people- (and traffic-) watching.
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Bar Pianegiani
Just like Clark Kent, this nondescript neighbourhood bar puts on an innocent front to conceal the magic that lies beneath, but 50 years of tradition has created the world’s most perfect gelato. Try the black cherry (spagnola) or hazelnut (nocciola).
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Dolceria Corrado Costanzo
This is just around the corner from Caffè Sicilia. Both make superb dolci di mandorla (almond cakes and sweets), cassata (with ricotta cheese, chocolate and candied fruit) and torrone (nougat). Costanzo is famous for its gelati.
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Gelateria Marghera
Concerted queuing is often required at this famous gelateria. Its range of ice-cream cakes and liquorini - layered gelati or sorbet with fruit or nut toppings and, you guessed it, liquor - are worth the wait.
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