If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve studied my vocabulary list of Italian gelato flavors and you’ve taken notes on my tips to finding good gelato in Italy. Now comes the best part - actually trying the gelato. But believe it or not, you’ve got a little learning left to do for this part, too, so here’s my primer on how to order gelato in Italy.
I will say that although these guidelines are generally still in practice almost everywhere I’ve ordered gelato, there are bound to be exceptions. As always, when in doubt about the process, watch someone else do it first and then copy them accordingly. As an added bonus, this waiting and watching gives you more time to check out the flavors in the gelato cases!
Ordering Gelato - The Vocabulary
First things first, we’ve got more vocabulary words to master. I know, you thought you were done with all that when you memorized your favorite gelato flavors, but unfortunately there’s a bit more to think about. Do you want a cup or a cone? One scoop or two? (Or three!) It’s a short vocab list, so don’t worry too much. Besides, the end result is you’ll get Italian gelato, so it’s not all bad.
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Here’s another in my Italy Q&A series of posts. I got a note from Milton which read:
i am going to italy in september for about 3 weeks and was thinking about taking an apartment in rome, or maybe another town. i would love your thoughts. i don’t want to try to see everything in the short time, but would like to headquarter in one place and see some wonders of the south and then go for a few days to the north of italy.
Choosing an apartment over a hotel is a great idea, especially if you’re going to be staying for more than a few days and you want to take day-trips rather than move from place to place. It makes for a slower pace of travel, too, and lets you get to know the greengrocer down the street and the bar on the corner where you’ll have your morning coffee every day, and as a bonus it often makes for more cheap travel, as well - so bravo for thinking about taking an apartment, Milton!
I’m of two minds about basing yourself in Rome, however. On the one hand, it’s got a massive train station and you’ll be able to take day-trips to just about anywhere you could possibly want to go. It also has Italy’s major airport, so finding cheap airline tickets to Europe will be easier here than for some other Italian cities. On the other hand, even apartments in Rome aren’t necessarily going to be inexpensive - especially if you don’t want to be way out in the (Roman equivalent of the) boondocks. Having said that, you didn’t say that you were specifically looking for the cheapest apartment out there, so you might have budgeted enough for a centrally-located apartment in Rome where you would be perfectly content.
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This is just a quick note to say that I’m going to be at the BlogHer Conference in San Francisco July 17-20, 2008 - so if you’re going to be attending the conference, send me a note or leave a comment here to let me know. I’d love to meet you if you’re going to be there!
And for those of you who aren’t going to be there, I’m hoping to pick up some great new blogging skeelz (that’s a technical term) which will make this Italy Travel Guide even better. …
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Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:
World happiness studies indicate that people in Italy aren’t as happy as some of their European neighbors - Italy ranks only 45th in overall happiness, whereas Ireland is 6th. Britain comes in at 21st, the United States is 16th, France is 36th, Spain is 43rd and Portugal is 46th. Denmark is listed as the happiest country, with Puerto Rico, Colombia, Iceland and Northern Ireland rounding out the top 5.
One of those celebrities who lives in Italy that I wrote about some time ago, Debi Mazar, sometimes posts cooking videos …
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For this Italy photo of the week, we’re in Florence:
Michelangelo’s David is, perhaps, one of the most famous images of Florence. And yet the one that’s outside the Palazzo Vecchio - the one everyone poses in front of for photos, and the one pictured above - is only one of three Davids in the city (at least there’s only three I know of - and that’s not counting all the crappy souvenirs you can buy of David statues, either). The real Michelangelo masterpiece, which once stood in this spot at the door of the Palazzo Vecchio, …
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Some Italian news for your Sunday reading pleasure:
An Etruscan tomb has been discovered in Perugia, removing one thing from what I imagine is still a miles-long list of really cool stuff still underground in Italy.
Do you have a spare €220,000 burning a hole in your designer pockets? Here are three properties in Italy with that price tag. And if that’s too rich for your blood, we’ve got other options for Italy real estate - both to rent and to buy.
The Italian government has declared a state of emergency for Pompeii, and not because …
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Although most people spend their Italian vacation in the “holy trinity” of Italian cities - Venice, Florence, and Rome - those who branch out and go just a short distance off the well-trodden tourist path also tend to flock to a few of the same places. One of the most popular cities to visit in Tuscany, one step off the main tourist trail but still very much a popular tourist destination, is Siena.
Siena is one of those picture-perfect medieval walled cities which has a more modern (and less interesting) city surrounding it. It’s just over 40 miles outside Florence, and can be a good day-trip from Florence if you don’t want to bother packing and unpacking for a one-night stay - but if you can spare the time, Siena is best visited as an overnight trip so you can really enjoy the medieval center after the day-trippers have gone. In this respect, I put Siena in the same category as Venice - it’s often horribly over-crowded during the day (especially in the high season), but can be enchanting in the early morning and late evening (even when it’s still kind of crowded).
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For all you Italian language enthusiasts out there, I’ve got a special little tidbit today. You’ve already read about my favorite Italian swear words, and you’ve seen my periodic posts about Italian idiomatic expressions, but this is different. It’s part language fun, part trivia, and part tongue-twister.
Ladies and gents, may I present to you the longest word in the Italian language:
precipitevolissimevolmente
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An Italy Logue reader recently sent me a note drawing my attention to a website that I thought I’d pass along to everyone. I’ve talked before about the budget beds which can be found in many of the monasteries and convents in Italy which have opened their doors to modern-day travelers, and I’ve also mentioned the challenge of locating websites (or even contact information) for these convents and monasteries. The best resource I knew of before was a book called “Bed and Blessings,” which unfortunately appears to be out of print - and was last printed in 1999, making the possibility that some of its information is out of date much more likely.
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When I was planning my last trip to Italy, I’d already heard about the Moleskine City Notebooks - and in fact I already had the one for Milan, the city where I was going to be based. But when I first heard about these little gems, they didn’t yet have many cities covered. By the time I arrived in Milan and found out that Moleskine was headquartered in Milan, I contacted someone there and had three more Moleskine City Notebooks sitting on my desk the very next day. I had been sent the notebooks for Rome, Venice and Florence, three cities I was planning to visit during my stay, so it worked out perfectly.
At first, I wasn’t totally clear how I’d use my City Notebooks. They’re perfectly sized to fit in most purses (even the smaller travel-sized ones) or jacket pockets, so I carried my Milan book with me everywhere during my first week back in Italy. I used the maps to mark a few of the locations of restaurants and gelato shops I tried, but I kept forgetting about the book in my purse until after I’d left the location I wanted to remember. Clearly I was going to have to get more used to the thing.
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