My favorite ice cream flavors are widely appreciated among Americans.  Cookies and Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, you know; the classics.  Of course, I’m also a fan of the semi-occasional sundae from Friendly’s or Dairy Queen.  One which includes vanilla yogurt (not low fat), hot fudge, sprinkles, oreos and whipped cream.  I also wouldn’t be upset with a reese’s peanut butter cup, or two, being thrown in there.  In my gluttonous American eyes, nothing could ever compete with American ice cream, not even Italy.

It was a hot day in Italy as I slipped into a pair of shorts and tossed a Frisbee around “Parco Sempione,” a thriving park within the city of Milan.  After building quite a sweat, my friends and I retreated to the shade, craving some sort of refreshment.  A bottle of Italian tap water just wasn’t cutting it.

As I threw my jeans back on we decided to try some Gelato for the first time.  Before coming to Italy my friend Alice, a traveling afficionado, feverishly tackled the task of explaining the joys of Italian gelato, which simply means ice cream in English, to me.  I always contemplated the irony of constantly speaking in English yet, always referring to ice cream as “Gelato,” among my American friends.  Anyway, her ultimate suggestion, besides trying handmade chocolates in Bruges (which was a great movie) was to taste as many flavors of gelato as possible.

Soon, we walked over to a renown gelato spot on Via Carducci, a popular street in Milan which hosted our University; Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Sede di Milano.  Doesn’t that sound ridiculously official?  They’re all about presentation in Italy.

Anyway, the place was tiny and it served one purpose; to sell ice cream.  There was nowhere to sit and limited spots to stand as people were always coming and going.  The first thing I noticed, however, was the display of the gelato.  Every flavor was dressed and advertised as if it was attending an interview for an ice cream truck.  A simple flavor, like strawberry for example, would have an elaborate fruit salad sitting directly on top of the square shaped presentation; an incredibly tempting invitation.  One time I saw the flavor caffe, had a filled cup of coffee, with a saucer and spoon on top of it.  Gelato wasn’t only delicious, but theatric.

In Italy some of their most daring flavors, in terms of caloric intake, were straciatella, which is a very innocent vanilla chip or bacio, which is named after a famous chocolate hazenut candy in Italy.  The only gelato I had, which represented anything remotely American, was a flavor named “Cupcake,” which I found in Venice.  However, it was a rarity among the gelato world and I only saw it that one time.

In reality, Gelato boasts a variety of categories including a few chocolates, nuts, creams and OF COURSE, fruits.  Nuts might include pistacchio, or nocciola (which is hazelnut by itself) while cream could refer to the aforementioned caffe.  In reality, fruit is where it’s at.  I don’t know of many places where you can get cantaloupe, pineapple, raspberry, apple, pear and peach ice cream.  Although, it is technically sorbet, they all have creamy, ice cream type qualities and they ALL taste scarily like the actual fruit.  My favorite, however, was a flavor named, “Frutti Di Bosco,” which means fruits of the forest.  It usually contains fruits like blue or blackberries.

One cool aspect of ordering Gelato in Italy is the ability to mix and match flavors.  Even if you purchase the smallest size, you usually have the option of trying 2 flavors.  Within 2 weeks of being in Milan I had legitimately tried over 30 different flavors and it wasn’t long before I had it narrowed down to a select few, which were my favorites.  Of course, I was always excited, to visit other parts of Italy and find new types of Gelato.  Similar to the experience in Venice, we came to find that each region often put their own spin on Gelato.

To be honest, one of my absolute favorite deserts hails from TGI Fridays.  It contains a warm brownie, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, whip cream and cherries.  I don’t care where you went in Italy, no one would ever be shameful enough to order such a thing.  Don’t get me wrong, Italians indulge plenty with their cannoli’s, zeppole’s and tiramisu, but for some reason, Italy just doesn’t have the balls to pile drive food like us Americans do.  Then again, theirs nothing brave about obesity.

While I must admit, I consistently walk away from an American dessert feeling as if I might have a heart attack at any moment, I’d gladly take that heart attack instead of an over glorified strawberry ice cream any day.  Yet, to call Italian gelato over glorified is nothing short of an insult, because it is, in its own right, deliciously unique.

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