Autumn e' arrivato a Roma, which means I am long overdue in announcing a winner for the world's greatest gelato contest. Seeing as Italy has the best ice cream on the planet I set myself the task this summer of sampling as many cones of pistacchio/caffe as I could and crowning a victor. And, the winner is ..... drum roll, drum roll ...
First, I should explain something. I didn't travel nearly as much as I thought I would this summer. You know, the price of benzina, traffic, etc. Turns out I only ventured south of Rome once and that was because my BA flight was re-routed to Naples, a gelato-free detour.
I have sampled the goods in the following regions though: Le Marche, Lazio, Umbria, Abruzzo and the Veneto. This gives me a strong representative sample of the ice creams of the northern top of Italy. (No doubt, the Piemontese, Lombardie and Liguriani will quibble with their exclusion). So, I've changed the rules. This year, we will have a Northern winner; next year a Southern winner and in two years' time an all-Italy, and thus all-world winner.
Ok, ok. The top gelato of 2005 honor goes to Venezia!...There's a little no-name ice cream stand on the Lido (a few paces from the vaporetto stop). 1.50 euros buys you an ample cone of creamy goodness. Not too sweet. Smooth and rich. And when it's 1,000 degrees and 100 percent humidity as that town is wont to be in August, it really hit the spot. It's well worth the trip to the posh isle. Tony's from nearby Monte Verde is a close second, but who wants second-best? Actually, I wouldn't mind a cone of second-best right now.
I would like to thank all the people who made this worthwhile giro di gelato '05 a success. You know who you are.
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