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Gelato in Florence

Gelato, often seen in the streets of Florence, is the Italian Ice-cream which is a dense flavourful ice-cream with an amazing texture. Some of Florence´s visitor´s most memorable and fun moments, are walking around the city with some Gelato in hand.
Gelato is typically made with fresh fruit or other ingredients like chocolate (pure chocolate, flakes, chips, etc.), nuts, small confections or cookies, or biscuits.

Dairy gelato is made with whole milk and contains 4–8% butterfat depending on the ingredients (nuts, milk, or cream increase the fat content). North American-style ice cream contains more butterfat than gelato, ranging from 10% to 18% since more cream is used. Like high-end ice cream, good quality gelato combines high quality ingredients with milk and cream, soy milk, or water. Gelato is usually made with whole milk which is 3–4% butterfat, and often cream is added to improve the texture.

Gelato is served from a different freezer than American style ice cream — a forced air freezer — which is usually held at about -15°C (0–6°F). This allows the gelato to be served right after being extruded from the gelato machine — the "forced air" blowing around holds the product at a consistent temperature. The best gelato is made fresh daily. Much of the gelato experience lies in its semi-frozen consistency; therefore, you may serve ice cream from a gelato freezer but you may not serve gelato from an ice cream freezer; the gelato would become too frozen.

Some Italian food products use gelato as a main ingredient. These include ice cream cake, semifreddos (gelato cake), spumoni, cassate, Tartufo, and fruit-filled gelato candies, elizabeth, and mignon. Gelati are often eaten in cones, or in bowls with a wafer type cookie.

Other countries make ice creams similar to gelato. In Argentina, helado is made much the same way. In France (though usually slightly higher in fat) glace is a very similar product and, in fact, was introduced to France by Catherine de' Medici (of Florence).


Common Gelato flavours in Florence

-Hazelnut (Nocciola)
-Chocolate (Cioccolato)
-Coffee (Caffe)
-Pistachio (Pistacchio)
-Stracciatella (fior di latte and chocolate)
-Strawberry (Fragola)
-Vanilla (Vaniglia)
-Coconut (Noce di Cocco)
-Banana
-Mint (Menta)
-Lemon (Limone)
-Peach (Pesca)
-Frutti di Bosco
-Tiramisu

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