After an economical pizza lunch on the go, why not splurge on a gelato or two, or maybe some other fantastic sweet concoction? Busy tourist cities like Venice or Florence seem to have hundreds of gelato stalls or freezers with dozens of flavors on offer. I suspect many of these places rely on reconstituted or packaged commercial gelato mixes but the stuff seems pretty good nonetheless. More artisanal gelato shops such Il Gelato di San Crispino in Rome have more esoteric and exquisite flavors on offer, but on a hot day, almost anything cold and flavorful satisfies the craving for something sweet…
The Teen seems to have a special stomach reserved just for gelato, and rarely turns down an opportunity for a scoop or two. She has probably tsted over 3-4 dozen flavors of gelato from dozens of different purveyors…
If gelato isn’t your thing, pastries of all sorts are also abundant…
Huge flavored meringues…
Almond brittle…
An amazing assortment of nougat… Dessert or a snack was never far away. :)
17 Responses
The gelato looks divine. Can’t say I’m a big fan of nougats, but the assortment looks interesting. How do you find Italian torrone vs. nougats produced in other countries (Spanish turron, etc.?)
I love nougats!!!! The almond brittle looks yummy :))
When my daughter and I visited/toured northern Italy last year, she fell in love with the Bacio flavored gelato which combines rich chocolate together with hazelnut. She claims no ice cream comes close to this gelato! :-)
Those almond brittles are calling out to me! I thought the colored meringues were scoops of gelato lol.
Almond brittles, nougats, and gelato….COMBINED!!!!…Heaven!
I never go to Venice without having a scoop of stracciatella or “una palla di Stracciatella”. Mandorlato and torrone I always give to my mom in Manila as pasalubong!
the display at the gelato shop in GB5 (near pepper lunch) looks similar. a lot of gelato shops in metro manila have opened and i wonder if you’ve found out which one is like the real thing? Btw, MM, did you delete that ilocandia fair post?
Jenny, yes, I did delete the fair post, it was horrible. We went and it was more of a fashion show and motel freebies and soap than food. :( As far as I can tell, all the gelato places here in the malls use the instant mixes… but I could be wrong.
I dont know what all the fuzz is about Venice and its food,
Ive been there plenty of times and foodwise it surely cannot live up to other and ‘real’ Italian cities,I guess this is because of its extreme tourist-nature. Overall I would really not recommend Venice for food-lovers, its expensive and they will rip you off most of the time
This brings back fond memories of eating gelato at Roma Termini with a 2 degree temperature in early December five years ago =)
RedLady, I don’t think anyone would rate Venice’s food above say that in Bologna, Florence or even Rome, but they do have some good dishes nonetheless. I guess if you had to bring everything onto a small floating venue, then prepare it there and serve it in tight quarters, with high staff costs, it would be wicked expensive no matter what. But if you did manage to get a few meals at well thought of high end restaurants, such as Alle Testieri, Da Fiore, Il Ridotto, Il Ritrovo, Harry’s Dolci or even Harry’s Bar, Aciugheta pizzeria, maybe your food memories of Venice wouldn’t just be overpriced tourist meals. As for me, having some small dishes at the small bars/restaurants near the market always seemed like a relatively good deal for food in a spectacular setting… a city floating on water…
@ Shirley – Bacio is my favorite gelato flavor too! They’re made with Baci chocolates by Perugina, a brand found in Italy. I think they’re very similar to ferrero rocher. Since the Bacio gelato wouldn’t survive the trip home, I bought Baci chocolates intead.
I’ve tried some gelato places here in Manila like the new one beside Pepper Lunch in GB5, the one near the Apple store in GB3 and Caramia in Don Bosco Makati. I like the GB5 best but it is very expensive and still does not come close to the gelatos of Italy.
all of the above, yum!
Tried the Gelato at Cebu lang, ang sarap nga.
leave me here and come back for me next year :-)
These food all look rich and sooo creamy! I will go to cold stone lol we don’t have gelato here.
The meringues looked interesting…what flavors where they?