La Dolce Vita--E.V.O.Oh my gah I'm in Italy (5)!

Ciaooo!

Ponte Vecchio

Still here in Italia living La Dolce Vita! Haven’t been able to post much lately due to lots of traveling but rest assured that I have been photographing all my amazing meals along the way. Let’s see..the last time I posted I think was after I had been to Lucca? Since then I’ve been to Chianti, Montepulciano, Rome, Venice, Milan, Sorrento, Interlaken, Bologna, Capri, Prague, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Positano annnddd Pompeii…whew, is that it?! It’s been an amazing few months and I can’t believe I have to go home in less than a month! I am NOT ready to leave Italy or Europe in general. It’s an amazing amazing place. I feel so lucky that I have been able to travel so much of Italy and Europe while I’ve been here and of course I have my parents to thank for that! And school…for being so relaxed and letting me slack off majorly this semester haha.

Anyway, here are just a select FEW of the sweets I have eaten while in Italy. Both I got in Florence but you can find them anywhere in Italy. Gelato and Cannoli! It was actually kind of hard to find cannoli here in Firenze which my friends and I were shocked by. In fact it took us a good week or two to find places that even had cannoli! BUT I discovered the reason for this: cannoli are from the region of Sicily, not Tuscany, so you don’t find them a lot up here. Alas we did manage to find some good cannoli in Tuscany…in fact we found a lot of good cannoli.

The ones pictured are from this little cafe across the Arno in Firenze. I got a chocolate and regular cannolo (the singular form of cannoli!) because of course I just had to try both for blogging research purposes. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that one. These cannoli were pretty good for Florence, I mean the other ones I’ve seen around town don’t look too hot. But we had amazing amazing cannoli at a sweets shop in Rome called “Ciuri Ciuri”. I highly recommend going there if you’re in Rome. They fill the cannoli right there in front of you–they’re great. But the best cannoli I had was this past weekend when I was in Positano, which is in Sicily. It was incredible…absolutely incredible. By far the BEST cannoli I have ever put in my mouth. The outside was crispy but still tender, the inside was sweet and light and it was kind of covered in chocolate on the outside. Oh take me back.

ANYWAY. So, if you are in need of a cannoli in Firenze, cross the Arno. If you are need of a cannoli in Sicily–go anywhere they’re bound to be amazing. If you’re in Rome try out “Ciuri Ciuri”. Now on to my most favorite sweet, gelato. You may remember from my post about a year back, I LOVE froyo and ice cream. So coming to Italy I was pretty excited for the gelato. Oh I have not been disappointed. Before I came all my friends who studied abroad here before were like “oh you have to get gelato every day, blah blah blah, it’s so amazing”. And I was like, yeah okay, EVERYday? Yeah right, maybe 4 times a week, but not every day. Oh how wrong I was.

I will now give that advice to anyone coming to Italy: get gelato every. single. day. It’s too good to pass up. So my FAVORITE place to get gelato is at La Carraia in Firenze. That’s the one that’s pictured, flavors are Fragola (strawberry) and Nutella and Yogurt. The main location is across the Arno like two bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio but they have a La Carraia 2 on Via Guiseppe Verde. Beware the second locale doesn’t have as many flavors because its pretty small. Ohhh La Carraia. Where to even begin? So first amazing thing: they have a 1 euro cone and they pile the gelato on that thing. Second amazing thing: their Nutella and Yogurt flavor gelato. Ooooohh myyy goodness. Holy moly. I don’t even know what to say about it. I mean, pssh. You know the fudge ripple things in American store bought ice cream? Okay, well Carraia’s yogurt and nutella has that, except the ripples are NUTELLA and they are waaay thicker. The combo of the tart of the yogurt flavor with the super sweet nutella is unbeatable. I really don’t know what I’m gonna do without it in the US. That actually just occurred to me. NOT OKAY! Other notable flavors include: pear and ricotta, cookies (has these little Italian cookies in it, so so good), fondente, cheesecake…I could go on and on. So: it’s cheap and amazing. In short: you have to go. If you don’t then I just don’t even know what to tell you. Other notable gelaterias: Cafe Neri–has really good fruit flavors and Vivoli–a lot creamier than other gelato I have had but great nonetheless.

So there’s my sweets wrap up for now. I say for now because I still have to post about Swiss chocolate, more gelato, other chocolate in other countries, Dutch pancakes and various sweets in Prague! Oh right, and of course regular food too other than sweets…

Boun appetito!

Whitney