Gelato Takes the Cake

We may have gotten some form of ice cream (and pastries but that's another story) in every single city on the search for the best. And although they were all delicious, I think we found the winner. You'll notice that all of these pictures are of me, but you better believe that Richie shared every single one of these cones. Ice cream never sounded good to him until it was in my hands.

We started out nice and easy with a basic chocolate ice cream cone in Sevilla, Spain. Well really a frutas del bosque ice cream in Madrid, but that one doesn't count because it was disappointing.

In Granada, Spain we stuck to normal ice cream. Until I saw this and HAD to have it. The entire time we were in the ice cream parlor I kept telling Richie that I wanted it (while I was eating a normal pistachio cone) but I didn't know what is was and how to order it. Finally, after we were halfway down the street, I decided that I have to have this ice cream cake in a cone. We went back and I got my cake. And it was worth the hassle of asking someone what they were eating then ordering in Spanish.

The next stop on our ice cream journey was in Paris where our guide told us about the world famous Berthillon ice cream. World famous? We had to try it, and it was delicious. But for three Euros a scoop, we only tried it once.

My first taste of gelato was in Venice where we found a lovely little gelateria called La Boutique de Gelato. 1.20 Euros got me one of the biggest single scoop cones I've ever had, and it was delicious. Their Nutella gelato was probably my favorite out of all of Italy. Smooth and creamy- exactly what gelato should be

The Nutella gelato was hard to beat, but Rome's competitors came in a close second. On one of our little walks around the city, our guidebook pointed us to a shop that sold this delicacy- Death by Chocolate. It may look like a chocolate brownie with whipped cream, but it's really chocolate gelato covering a chocolate covered cherry. Oh so rich and delicious. Richie ate the last bite (including the cherry we didn't know was there before he ate it). Apparently even though he doesn't like chocolate cake, gelato is a different story.

And where else to end our journey but the world-famous Roman gelateria- Giolotti. With tons of flavors to choose from, good prices, and huge portions we stopped here more than we should in the two days we were in Rome. We tried orange, strawberry, and pineapple the first night followed by pistachio, straticella, and white chocolate the second. All amazing. Hence the big smile on my face.

Top 20 things I learned in Europe