Florence Gelato Tour, Italy

Welcome Back ETD Readers!!

Are you ready for some Gelato goodness?

When we arrived in Florence and headed to our hostel we had a few issues, so we changed our plans and decided to stay the extra night in Pisa instead. We spent the day in Florence, while our bags were stored at the train station.

We looked at the map and saw that there was not much to see/do in Florence, so while we had a buffet lunch, we looked up some nice gelato places to taste the best gelato in Florence. What better to do than a gelato taste test fest!!

Gelato stop #1

We plotted a route from our lunch stop, via Piazza Duomo, to our first gelato stop: Perché No!, at Via dei Tavolini 19.  A website we found says that this is one of the best gelato places in Florence by far. They have a range of flavours and the texture of the gelato is quoted as being ‘perfect’. Gaffa enjoyed a mascarpone cream and tiramisu, but was a bit disappointed that the marscapone was a thick cream not a nice velvety ice cream texture. I had green tea, which did not compare to the green tea ice cream I love at Passion Flower in Australia; it had a strong tea flavour and not enough sweetness.

While eating our gelato, we walked to Piazza della Signoria, where we took photos of the fake David statue. Why pay money to go into a Museum to see the ‘real’ David statue when you can see one that looks exactly the same and for free!  

fake David

Next we headed south, over Ponte Vecchio and onto Piazza Pitti. 

Here we stopped for a rest and led down on the ground, basking in the sunshine.

relaxing to let the gelato settle

It was time for our next gelato stop. We went off to find Gelateria de Neri at Vin Dei Neri 20. This gelato place was a little more expensive so we opted to share a double scoop. We tried a mixed berry flavour and lemon gelato. Both flavours were very good. The lemon was sweet and not too citric and the mixed berry flavours were so tasty. The texture was very velvety also.

Gelato stop #2

We did some more sightseeing to let the ice cream settle again before our next gelato fix. We found some beautiful buildings in Florence.

After some more walking around we decided to try just one more gelato place. We picked a random gelato place, called Gelateria right near the piazza opposite the train station. We couldn’t decide on two flavours to share, so we had a double scoop each! I had dark chocolate and white chocolate gelato whereas Gaffa had another mixed berry and green apple gelato. The dark chocolate gelato was just moreish, the rich bitter chocolatey flavour had an amazing texture. The mixed berry was comparable to the one at de Neri. The green apple gelato was delicious!! 

final gelato stop, #3

We both decided that the last gelato place was the best. Prices were reasonable and the flavours we tried were great. It was a hand made, hole-in-the-wall gelato place, which we both love, rather than the usual touristy places.  

After our bellies were full of ice cream, we headed to the train station to catch our train to Pisa. Florence is a nice place, with GREAT gelato! I would come back next time and spend some more time sightseeing and enjoy the Italian culture. 

Next stop, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and beautiful Cinque Terre!