The Florentine Ice-cream Crawl
It is summer, finally the real one with the thermometer going way over the 30°C constantly throughout the day.
One simple remedy to enjoy the heat of this season is to go for an Gelato-crawl in town.
It is a great way to discover the city… “of course” like a true florentine. So let’s begin.
Ice cream or ice-cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours.
This ain’t me, but wikipedia. For me ice cream is daydream-pleasure, cold-hipnotic trans and pure happiness presented in a soft, creamy, dense and caledoscopic cold silky-cashmere.
Eating an authentic Italian artisan ice cream is no where near to what ever one has been having till that moment. Most ice-cream are made industrially: no fresh products and a lot of air (cheap and easy to handle). Watch out as even in Florence, most ice-cream places offer industrial products disguised as artisanal. The point is to use the freshest ingredients on a daily basis.
Here you’ll go for a real treat.
Vivoli in via delle Stinche. A true Florentine insitution praised by florentine and turists. Portions a bit stingy and the do not serve cones. Their cream though is quite possibly “da best in town”!
Main city landmark: Piazza Santa Croce with Chiesa Santa Croce.
Main artisan corner: La Scuola del Cuoio. A leather atelier with old school masters.
Keeping your mind frame on the cream go for the Buontalenti cream at Badiani in Viale de’ Mille –BUS 17- This is a true elegant, totally off the biten –no turists- florentine Pasticceria.
Main city Landmarks: this is a residential area, near the “Stadio della Fiorentina” –the town footbal pitch- and the “Arena di Marte” open air Cinema.
Get a full load of ice-cream and purchase a multiple cinema ticket to improve your Italian. If you don’t get a word of what they are saying… you still have the Badiani Gelato!
I am going to keep you on a cream path for one last stop with the Gelateria dei Medici in via dello Statuto, near the Fortezza da Basso going towards Careggi.
Main city landmark. Nothing much to see here, but 500m before the Gelateria Dei Medici there is a little park by the Fortress where kids like to go feed the king-swans. This would be a great place to enjoy your gelato like a “true fiorentino”
Not too far away from here, walking towards the centre in Via Indipendenza, then Piazza San Marco you’ll be getting to the Accademia, the museum where one can admire the majestic David of Michelangelo –a must visit if one comes to Italy. I could spend the whole day sitting in front of this Michelangelo’s masterpiece learning always something new and breathing the depth and elegance of its work. Not too far away from the Accademia is the Gelateria Carabè in Via dei Servi. My suggestion here would be to go for the Granita. The owners are from Messina, where I usually have the best Granita –flavoured crushed ice- in the planet. They have brought in Florence a bit of that Sicilian perfection. Their almond or pistacchio ice-cream is also pretty good.
From here you are only a few hundreds meters away from the Uffizi Gallery, one of the world’s greatest museum: among the hundreds of masterpieces here you could find the Nascita di Venere and the Primavera di Botticelli, the Annunciazione – Leonardo da Vinci; Battaglia di San Romani – Paolo Uccello.
A few meters in a little alley – Via Lambertesca – you could finish this little ice-cream crawl with Gelateria Carapina. This time indulge into the millions of super fresh fruit flavours, altouch their cream is pretty good too.
