TRAVEL
gelato of San Crispino is the cold”, it’s written on their website, which means their gelato is produced without the use of any artificial preservatives or chemical emulsifiers. But San Crispino does even more, and the fruit and the nuts are processed with still part of their skin and peel, making a sort of “whole gelato”. In the beautiful Trastevere district, you can enjoy Otaleg! where you will find gourmet and creative seasonal flavors like gorgonzola cheese with chocolate and walnut, creamwith honey and whiskey, a blend of pistachios from Turkey and Iran, or vanilla Bourbon with ginger. However, if you’re looking for an impressive variety of natural and high quality flavors, don’t miss Torcè, close to the Colosseum. The flagship of the shop is the chocolate: you can count at least six different interpretations of the most popular flavor, including surprising variations with chilly, gorgonzola cheese, or even celery. Other notable mentions include: La Gourmandise, a little gem located not exactly in the city center but in the lovely Monteverde Vecchio district. If you want to explore Rome more like a local than a tourist, the trip is definitely worth it: you can enjoy the beautiful architecture of this area only a few stops from Trastevere. If you like nature, it’s the perfect occasion for visiting the park of Villa Pamphili. But let’s get back to gelato: the owner of La Gourmandise is a real artist and an ex pastry chef. You will find a lot of spices in his flavors, like lemon with cilantro, tangerine with juniper, cream with thyme, lavander and ginger. Fata Morgana produces natural gelato and you can find it in many different locations, so it’s pretty convenient. It’s worth mentioning their delicious sorbets and the creativity of their flavors created ad hoc for special occasions. As an example, for the Chinese year of the Tiger, they created the Eye of the Tiger flavor: organic oranges from Sicily, organic carrot and licorice sauce. Last but not least, La Romana gelateria, with its chocolate fountains to cover your cone with a chocolate frosting, and its delicious whipped cream.
Grezzo Raw Chocolate
region, milk from the Po Valley, Sicilian prickly pears. Here you will find creative and peculiar flavors, hard or even impossible to find elsewhere, like Pino Mugo (milk and cream combined with mugo pine essential oil) and Cinnamon from Madagascar. Gelateria dei Gracchi is the perfect break if you’re visiting the Vatican City and Basilica San Pietro. The creaminess and intensity of the nuts flavors (from pistachio to almond) is beyond words. You will also find a whole variety of chocolate flavors such as extra dark, with orange, with cocoa beans and coconut sugar. Close to Piazza Navona you will find Gelateria del Teatro, with its superb creams like eggnog and the almond; but the choice of flavors is huge. My suggestion is to try the Vecchia Roma, a tribute to the Jewish Ghetto, made with ricotta, sour cherries and crumble with butter. A little extra: the gelato laboratory is visible from one of the shop windows, so people on the street can stop and see the preparation process. A pioneer of the “natural gelato” in the Capital is Gelateria San Crispino. “The only preservation of the
place where you will find two distinct but well mixed souls: one from the Roman tradition and the other one from the South of Italy, the Puglia region in particular. GELATO. Gelato is one of the things that can go wrong when it comes to food in Rome. It’s all too easy to grab a sweet cup or a cone from the first gelateria you come across with during your day of intense sightseeing. Mediocre or average gelato is everywhere, but it takes a little patience to wait for the real treat. I’ll start with my personal favorite: Grezzo Raw Chocolate, in the beautiful Monti district. Raw, gluten- free, vegan and organic, Grezzo offers gelato and pastry produced with only high quality ingredients, warmed at a temperature no more than 42° C. The chocolate is unlike any other you have tried before, almost unreal: pure, strong, rich, and dark. Just remember that such quality comes at a price, so this ice cream would be pricey compared to other gelaterie. Günther Gelato Italiano is a worth rival to Grezzo, since the ingredients are again of superb quality: water from the Alps of the Trentino
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EC Magazines | London-Tucson Edition 2022
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