One Year Away

Tara

Mission:    Find the best gelato in Italy

Panel:        Joe, Penny, Lora and Tara


Gelato is the Italian version of ice cream.  The history of gelato dates back from the 16th century.
There is confusion about its origin or inventor, but as the story goes it is credited to Bernardo Buntalenti, a native of Florence who delighted the court of Catherina de Medici with his creations.  Gelato in Italian literally means “frozen” but it basically used to indicate the Italian type of ice cream.  One of the basic differences of the gelato versus American ice cream is that gelato contains less air and is therefore more intense in flavor.  In part gelato is healthier than traditional ice cream since it is made with all natural ingredients, contains less calories and less butter fat (Thank God!).

Soon after our arrival, we noticed Italy was littered with gelaterias and that was the inspiration for our experiment.  So far every bite has been a little taste of heaven.  In Varenna, Penny and Joe tested chocolate and amaretto flavors, Lora gave chocolate and mint a test drive and Tara went out on a limb with hazelnut!

I
n Florence, the birthplace of gelato, the girls left Joe for a shopping excursion (hardly any damage done for any interested parties) while Joe stayed back at the hotel in an attempt to regain some sanity away from the “girl talk”.  Unfortunately for Joe he missed Phase II of our experiment.  On our second try, Penny dove into the chocolate and Nutella, Tara devoured pistachio and peach while Lora had snickers and mint flavors, for a change.

Our next phase was unexpected, in Orvieto home of Orvieto Classico (white wine) we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for gelato.  We stopped in a random gelateria and experienced the following flavors:  Lora did a complete 180 and opted for straciatella and capriccio (a mix of Nutella and hazelnut?), Joe chose chocolate rum and hazelnut in hopes of starting his drinking early, Penny had none other than chocolate and capriccio and finally Tara had the capuccino and straciatella.  To date, this has been our favorite gelato.

However, our experiment is not over and we are determined to find the best gelato in Italy!

Stay tuned!