Gelato in Florence

While we're on the subject of food, I might as well enlighten you. My friends and I have come to adore a select few gelato places around town.

It seems that the base requirements for Italian gelato are that it contains at least 3.5% butterfat and that it has 16-24% sugar. It normally contains milk, cream, sugar, and flavoring (either in the form of fresh fruit, nut puree, or cocoa powder, among others), although I've seen a dark chocolate gelato made with olive oil instead of milk. Now that is some heavy duty dark chocolate.

Gelato supposedly made its way to Florence during the time of the Medici family, but it didn't gain Italian popularity until the first gelato cart appeared in Varese in the 1920s.

Today, as I walk the streets of Florence, gelato is more abundant on the streets than Starbucks is in New York. Another cool fact? Gelato is still more individually made by shops here than industrially produced and imported.

My friend David happens to be partial to Vivoli (he has indeed gotten multiple large cups in one sitting...his other goal is to try all of the 33 flavors there individually/not sharing cups), the rest of us have come to prefer Gelateria La Carraia and Grom.

On any given night, Gelateria La Carraia (located two bridges to the right of the Ponte Vecchio) is packed. Outside there are streams of local young adults and inside there's almost always a line (it goes quickly though). Their flavor du jour seems to be "cookies," but their chocolate is also sublime. Personally though, I find that their fruit flavors just miss.

Who wouldn't want to eat gelato while looking out at this view?

Then there's Grom. Being a "chain" gelato store, you would think that Grom should be sub-par compared to some of the more local joints. However, even looking at how they store their gelato, you can tell it's going to be good. Instead of having colorful mounds of gelato piled high in cases for visitors to see, Grom's gelato is in dark metal containers with lids and temperature gages. Grom was founded in 2003 and offers flavors such as Crema di Grom (their cookie-like flavor) and blueberry (which seems to be a rare fruit flavor finding here). Next time, I want to try their nougat flavor.