How to Order Gelato in Italy (a Comprehensive Guide)

If there’s one thing you have to do in Italy, it’s get gelato. Smooth, creamy, and rich, this frozen treat is the perfect thing to cool you off after a long day of sightseeing. However, finding authentic gelato is a lot more difficult than it sounds, and ordering it is much different experience than in America. With a few tips and tricks, though, you’ll be able to get yourself a cone of gelato with no problem!

What’s the difference between gelato and ice cream?

Gelato is made with less butterfat and eggs than ice cream, and it’s kept at a higher temperature. Overall, this gives it a smoother, denser, and softer consistency, especially since there’s less air churned into it. Due to the lower temperature and butterfat content, you can often taste the flavors better as well, since your tongue is not numbed by the cold and isn’t covered in butterfat!

How to spot authentic gelaterias

Since gelato is such a popular item in Italy, there are gelaterias on practically every street. The only problem is—how can you separate the authentic places from the touristy ones?

Gelateria Red Flags

If you spot one or more of these characteristics, chances are that this gelato place is not the best.

• The gelato is packed in mounds (see above). Any gelato that’s packed into mounds way above its metal containers contains additives and stabilizers so it won’t melt. It looks good, but I can assure you it won’t be as authentic as the real thing.
• The gelato is decorated with toppings to indicate its flavor. Once again, this will look inticing, but the best gelato won’t need toppings to show you what flavor it is.
• Bright and unnaturally colored flavors. Look specifically at pistachio—it’s the best indicator for a good gelateria. Real pistachio gelato should be a brownish-green, not a bright mint color like you can see in the picture above (the same goes for any other flavor). If you taste the pistachio and it has a slight almond-y taste, that could be an indicator of an extract used to enhance the pistachio flavor (almond extract is used since it’s less expensive than real pistachios).
• The flavors are labeled in English. This isn’t necessarily a red flag, but if the labels are in English, that tells you the shop is primarily catered to serve Americans.
• It’s close to national landmarks. Anywhere next to a national landmark is more prone to be a tourist trap, or so I’ve seen in my experience.

Gelateria Green Flags

There are boxes a good gelateria should check—these criteria never failed to help me find amazing gelato!

• The gelato is covered. This is a sure sign of a good gelato place; since it’s covered with a lid, it’s ensured to be kept at the right temperature, and you know that the shop isn’t trying to lure you in with tall and brightly colored mounds of gelato.
• You see a lot of Italians in the line. When we were in Florence, my family and I stopped at a gelato place after dinner solely because the line was packed with Italians. And to be fair, it was some of the best gelato we had on our entire trip.

We stayed in Florence and Rome for most of our trip, but here’s a list of the gelato places I recommend if you go there:

• Florence: La Sorbettiera, Sbrino
• Rome: La Romana, Come il Latte

Common Gelato Flavors:

There are countless variations of gelato flavors, but here are the most common ones.

• Fior di latte. This literally means “flower of milk,” and it’s a sweet cream that’s basically the base flavor for gelato.
• Cioccolato fondente. Dark chocolate.
• Cioccolato al latte. Milk chocolate.
• Stracciatella. A fior di latte base with chocolate shards mixed throughout.
• Pistacchio. Pretty self-explanatory—this one’s pistachio, only it’s pronounced pee-STAH-key-oh; probably one of my all-time favorite flavors.
• Bacio. Chocolate with chopped hazelnuts.
• Gianduia. Milk chocolate and hazelnut—unlike bacio, gianduia uses hazelnut paste instead of chopped hazelnuts for a smooth texture.
• Menta. Mint.
• Nocciola. Hazelnut.
• Noce. Walnut.
• Fragola. Strawberry.
• Limone. Lemon.
• Caffè. Coffee.
• Caramello al sale. Salted caramel.
• Mandorla. Almond.
• Cocco. Coconut.
• Lampone. Raspberry.
• Albicocca. Apricot.
• Melone. Melon.

How to Order Gelato

Ordering in Italy is often different from ordering in America. For one, when you order gelato in the States, you normally get your ice cream and then pay. In Italy, it’s reversed; you’ll pay for what size of a cup or cone you would like, then you get a receipt, go to the counter, and choose your flavors.

How to Order in Italian:

If you’re like me and love learning languages, here are some phrases that might be handy when you want to practice your Italian. Don’t worry if you don’t know any Italian, though—no matter where we went, pretty much everyone spoke English!

There are lots of grammar rules associated with gender and number in Italian, but I’m not going to go in depth with them here. Some common phrases to use are:

• Vorrei… I would like…
• Una coppetta / un cono. A cup/a cone.
• Piccolo/a, medio/a, grande. Small, medium, large.
• Gusti. Flavors.
• Per favore. Please.
• Posso assaggiare…? Can I taste…?
• Posso pagare con la carta/in contanti? Can I pay with card/cash?
• Grazie. Thank you.
• Ex: Vorrei una coppetta media con due gusti, per favore. Posso assaggiare il pistacchio? I would like a medium cup with two flavors, please. Can I taste the pistachio?

Hope you guys liked this crash course in all things gelato—I hope it helped! Let me know what other tips and tricks you want to know, and leave a comment if you have any questions!