Wow. I’m surprised that I didn’t gain weight while traveling in Italy during my Europe trip back in 2004. Because I scanned my journal and found around 30 entries where I talked about all the delicious gelato I ate!! It must have been all the walking, biking and hiking that kept me in shape.
Here are some of those tasty gelato journal entries. Let me tell you though, that each gelato was definitely worth every bite…
May 25 – Ancona – I had my first authentic Italian gelato at the train station! The signs were all in Italian of course, but I figured out the choices between cup or cone, two or three scoops, and then it came topped with cream. I got two yummy scoops, “cioccolato,” and nutella (a tasty chocolate and hazelnut combo)!
May 27 – Camponocecchio – A gelato dessert after a pizza dinner to top off a fabulous Italian experience. “Torta de Gelato” (ice cream cake) with fragola (strawberry) and decorated with sugar. Molto delizioso!!
May 28 – Vicenza – I had dinner in a self-service restaurant, which is a great way to have a good cheap meal. After dinner, I had to get a gelato. Actually this was my second gelato of the day. The first was this morning at a little café, where I also got a cappuccino. A cappuccino and a gelato – what a way to start the day.
May 30 – Venice – After a couple hours of wandering, and eating – I had a Panini, and my “daily” gelato, “mandarino” (Mandarin orange) flavored – I found St. Mark’s Square. I headed straight for the Bell Tower – I wanted to get to the top for the views.
June 2 – Trieste – Since this was my last day in Italy for a week, I had to go find a gelateria. The only place I could find one was at the train station. How convenient!
June 12 – Gubbio – I had lunch of a pizza with spinach, arugula, and eggplant. Then I walked around this small town for a while and looked in their tiny shops. They have a lot of ceramic stuff and really interesting painted glass, several with sunflowers on them. Then I got banana and chocolate flavored gelato.
June 21 – Montelpuciano – I wandered through the touristy streets. I got a salami sandwich for lunch, and ate it on the steps of a church. Then I ate a gelato on the same steps. After, I went to the wine store next door and had a sample of Montelpuciano wine. The Italian cuisine!
June 26 – Orvieto – After visiting the cathedral, I wanted gelato, because I saw a gelateria on my way to the cathedral that looked really good. And it was absolutely the best gelato that I’ve had thus far in Italy! (And I’ve had a lot of gelato.) I got a tiramisu flavor, and a chocolate-rum flavor that was simply the best. It tasted like the chocolate rum balls that my Grandma used to make. Yummmmmy!
Later in the day, I just had to go back and have a second gelato at the same place. I ordered a refreshing peach flavor, and of course, got the same chocolate-rum flavor. Wow!
June 27 – Orvieto – I got up this morning to get to my next destination, and on my way to the train station, I got some fruit for breakfast, a pen, because my other one ran out of ink, and a postcard to mail back home. Believe it or not though, no gelato this morning.
June 28 – Corniglia, Cinque Terre – I walked up the main street of Corniglia, got a gelato, and continued on until the street’s end overlooking the water. It was so quiet around. I felt noisy when I started crunching on the cone of the gelato.
Later – Then I made a few phone calls, and checked email. I got another gelato, and am eating the gelato in bed as I write in my journal. “Stracciatella” – chocolate chip!
June 29 – Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre – I took a train back to Riomaggiore, and got a…drum roll please…gelato!
June 30 – Corniglia – I had a quick lunch and a gelato. Then by about 2 pm, I started on a great hike. It was trail #7a, which for a while was pretty steep. It went up away from Corniglia into the hillside. With all the trees and elevation gain it felt like a “mountain hike.”
July 2 – Portofino – I had to get money, and then I was hungry, so I bought a gelato. My last gelato for this Italy trip. I will be back to Italy in a few weeks though. I got two scoops, “cocomero” (watermelon), and “pompelmo rosa” (pink grapefruit) – both full of terrific flavor.
July 20 – Ancona – I got to the train station, and took a train which got me to Genga about an hour later. But not before having a gelato at the train station. Ahhh, to be back in Italy. I might have to re-learn the little Italian I know, but eating a gelato again is easy.
July 22 – near Camponocecchio – After looking at fields of sunflowers, I intended to go grocery shopping, but I went clothes shopping instead. I bought three items. Then I had a gelato. Clothes and gelato in the same day!
July 26 – Venice – I’m back in one of my favorite Italian towns. Right away, I began to wander the streets of Venice, but not before having a “pistacchio” flavored gelato first.
July 30 – near Camponocecchio – We went to a gelateria to get some freshly home-made gelato. My friend knew the man working there, who turned out to be very generous with the gelato we had. I had a cone, and he put four, yes four, flavors on it. Usually you only get two. Chocolate, peach/orange (that’s one flavor), melon, and coffee. And then he gave us samples of two other flavors to taste that he just made.
July 31 – Arcevia – After a while, a friend asked if we wanted to go get a gelato. Of course – never refuse a gelato, I say. We walked up a narrow street of the town, to the main square. There happened to be live music playing there. I had chocolate, coffee and nutella flavored gelato. Plus the gelato I had earlier today. Yikes! Maybe I need to cut back on the sweets a bit. Or not.
August 6 – Urbino – When I left the Oratorio, it was raining pretty hard. I stood under some shelter for a bit, and soon the rain turned into just a sprinkle. I walked up the street to a gelateria. They had the nutella flavored gelato, which seems to be one of my favorites. I sat on the steps of a piazza in Urbino, ate my gelato, and watched the rain.
August 14 – Verona – After the amphitheater, I wandered around a bit, and ended up on a pedestrian-only street, where they had lots of stores. I had to try on some clothes, but nothing was looking right. I did get however, a gelato, with three flavors – bacio (a rich chocolate hazelnut combo), pompelmo rosa (pink grapefruit (again)), and malaga (rum raisin).
August 20 – Vicenza – I biked to downtown Vicenza this morning. I thought that there would be an outdoor market today, but there wasn’t. I ended up going clothes shopping instead. And I got a gelato – “arancia” (orange) and “cioccolato” flavors. The orange was very refreshing. I spent a couple of hours downtown.
Hmmmm. Guess I better go get some gelato now that I’m done with this blog!
Sweet (literally) Travels!