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I guess this is another echo of what's his name and his trip to italy, but I just got back. Man, 2 weeks and a whirlwind tour, now I feel like I'm the one who needs a vacation. Still though, not as expensive as I feared, and well worth the expenses and time it took. Great experience. see yall around the block dudes.

(BTW, Food in italy is over rated. Aside from cured meats and cheeses, and a few restaurants, the food was an overall dissapointment.)

Disappointment? Clearly you didn't eat salami pizza there. Or gelato.

Also... pictures! NAU!

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream. Had some really great stuff in Vernazza/Cinque Terre, but for the most part, its the same as blue bells. Maybe I should have had more pizza though. I'll put up photos soon

North_Ranger said:

Disappointment? Clearly you didn't eat salami pizza there. Or gelato.

Also... pictures! NAU!

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There is actually a place near here that does that. They also cook the pizza the traditional way by putting the toppings under the cheese instead of on top. It's delicious.

Oh, shit man. Gelato is so much more than ice cream.

There was a Gelato place downtown in my city a few years back. They went out of business, and I wept for a straight week.

Glad you had fun though. I went to Italy in High School. I'm glad I went, but I wish I had went later, without classmates. Our free time went something like:

Walk for a minute.
Duck into bar, just because we could.
Don't order anything.
Walk for another minute.
Go into smoke shop.
Buy cigars.
Smoke cigars.
Repeat in five minute intervals.
When lunchtime, Eat at McDonalds, even when there is a beautiful Italian restaurant right next door.

That shit gets old fast. But we did it for a straight week anyways.

Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream. Had some really great stuff in Vernazza/Cinque Terre, but for the most part, its the same as blue bells.

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Blasphemy!

Frau VildSoul;268487][quote=Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream. Had some really great stuff in Vernazza/Cinque Terre, but for the most part, its the same as blue bells.

Click to expand...

Blasphemy![/QUOTE]

Burn him!!

Better yet, drown him in gelato, so he will die knowing what he missed!

I still remember my first bite of gelato in Italy. It was in Rome, in a small restaurant near my hotel. It was chocolate flavored. I sat near the door, facing the large window at the front of the restaurant, through which I could see my hotel and a nearby school.

I don't remember the moment I first fell in love. But I remember my first gelato.

We ate like champs. Then again, we went at length to talk to the locals to validate what we had in our guide and went to really good (and generally as inexpensive as the Euro can get) restos and ate REALLY good. Where did you go again?

Me and the wife spent a few weeks in Venice about 2 years ago.
It was 2 weeks of trying really hard to find good food.
Great city though and we eventually found some good food but damn they didn't make it easy.

Espy said:

Me and the wife spent a few weeks in Venice about 2 years ago.
It was 2 weeks of trying really hard to find good food.
Great city though and we eventually found some good food but damn they didn't make it easy.

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I think the big problem with finding good Italian Food in Italy is that you can make much more money selling it somewhere OTHER than Italy. That or they are attached to Hotels/Absurdly Expensive Bistros.

Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream. Had some really great stuff in Vernazza/Cinque Terre, but for the most part, its the same as blue bells. Maybe I should have had more pizza though. I'll put up photos soon

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If you can't tell the difference between Gelato and Ice Cream, your entire critism on Italian food in general just became moot.

What I noticed is that if you're somewhere of note and decide, let's eat at this bistro... you're not really eating at the best place. You're compromising that you don't want to search and are hitting a tourist trap where they'll charge you 5 euros for a coke can.

And I have to agree with Shego. Sorry.

Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream.

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Uhm... "gelato" is the italian word for "ice cream", so ice cream is what you should expect. If you buy it in a mediocre place, you get nice ice cream. If you find a good place, you'll get an extremely good ice cream that you'll stop eating when you realize you have no more money on you.

But it's still ice cream.

bhamv3;268552][quote=Frau VildSoul;268487][quote=Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream. Had some really great stuff in Vernazza/Cinque Terre, but for the most part, its the same as blue bells.

Click to expand...

Blasphemy![/QUOTE]

Burn him!!

Better yet, drown him in gelato, so he will die knowing what he missed!

I still remember my first bite of gelato in Italy. It was in Rome, in a small restaurant near my hotel. It was chocolate flavored. I sat near the door, facing the large window at the front of the restaurant, through which I could see my hotel and a nearby school.

I don't remember the moment I first fell in love. But I remember my first gelato.[/QUOTE]

This. I had my first lick in Milan. And yes, it was chocolate flavored.

I no longer wonder why some people substitute sex with chocolate.

Silver Jelly;268584][quote=Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream.

Click to expand...

Uhm... "gelato" is the italian word for "ice cream", so ice cream is what you should expect. If you buy it in a mediocre place, you get nice ice cream. If you find a good place, you'll get an extremely good ice cream that you'll stop eating when you realize you have no more money on you.

But it's still ice cream.[/quote]

Gelato is made similarly to ice cream, but has differing ingredients. Gelato is iced milk. Ice cream is iced cream (duh), and has a higher fat content. Generally, ice cream such as Blue Bell has a large amount of air whipped into it. Gelato also has air whipped into it, but not nearly so much, resulting in a denser, creamier dessert. Also, Blue Bell (among with many american made ice creams) now have high fructose corn syrup in them, as well as guar gum and other vegetable gums for stabilizing.

It's a totally different product than american ice cream. I make a point of going to Paciugo every now and then just to remind myself of that fact.

Never had authentic Gelato, but there are some places in Vegas to get some decent stuff.
And it's way more than icecream. Gelato is hands down the superior of the two.

SeriousJay said:

We ate like champs. Then again, we went at length to talk to the locals to validate what we had in our guide and went to really good (and generally as inexpensive as the Euro can get) restos and ate REALLY good. Where did you go again?

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Here was the trip with some notes. We drove a rental car the whole way.

Rome: 2 Nights
St Peters Basillica was amazing, as was just walking around. Great architecture everywhere.

Naples: 1 Night
The worst place we went in Italy. Absolutely filthy, only place in Italy I was scared. We saw 1 working streetlight. People tried to sell me stolen goods that matched what was in my bag.

Sorrento: 2 Nights
Stayed at a great place, drove the Amalfi coast, was incredible. Videotaped the entire drive back at sunset.

Florence: 1 Night
Saw the Duomo (wow), went to an opera. Tried a local tripe dish, was very good, but surprisingly tasted just like spagghetios

Venice: 2 Nights
Cool town, got lost repeatedly (which was really fun). Canal smells like ass. St Marks was claustraphobic and unpleasant. Generally really great town. Had some local seafood, it was all whipped fish (Baccala stuff). Very traditional, kind of hard to keep down by the end (very rich and VERY fishy)

Cinque Terre/Vernazza: 2 Nights
Great food, great gelato. Did 4 of the 5 towns walk. Found a store that sold wine bottles with Hitler, Mussolini, El Duce, etc. on them (WTF!) and went to a nude beach. Then walked through abandoned train tunnel (shortcut from beach) and thought we would die. Great time (seriously).

Tuscanny: 3 nights
Stayed in southern tuscanny at a vinyard/agritourism place, best place we stayed, bar none. Went to sienna to finish souvenier shopping, another cool Duomo but at that point I was a bit churched out. Went to a national park and went horseback riding. Went to Saturnia Spa a sulfur spring. Surprisingly the wine at the agritourism place wasn't great, but their Grappa was (for those that don't know, Grappa is almost identical to tequila).

Rome: 1 night
Went back to Trastavere for one last good meal, then went back to the hotel, woke up at 3:00 AM and caught a flight back to the US. Airplane company lost my bag.

Tinwhistler;268601][quote=Silver Jelly;268584][quote=Necronic said:

Gelato, for the most part, was basically ice cream.

Click to expand...

Uhm... "gelato" is the italian word for "ice cream", so ice cream is what you should expect. If you buy it in a mediocre place, you get nice ice cream. If you find a good place, you'll get an extremely good ice cream that you'll stop eating when you realize you have no more money on you.

But it's still ice cream.[/quote]

Gelato is made similarly to ice cream, but has differing ingredients. Gelato is iced milk. Ice cream is iced cream (duh), and has a higher fat content. Generally, ice cream such as Blue Bell has a large amount of air whipped into it. Gelato also has air whipped into it, but not nearly so much, resulting in a denser, creamier dessert. Also, Blue Bell (among with many american made ice creams) now have high fructose corn syrup in them, as well as guar gum and other vegetable gums for stabilizing.

It's a totally different product than american ice cream. I make a point of going to Paciugo every now and then just to remind myself of that fact.[/QUOTE]

So "Gelato" is something entirely diffrent from "ice cream" in english? I have to admit that, as an italian speaker, this sounds really strange for me. My brain keeps telling me that "Gelato" means "Ice Cream"...

Well, forget my post then.

Silver Jelly said:

So "Gelato" is something entirely diffrent from "ice cream" in english? I have to admit that, as an italian speaker, this sounds really strange for me. My brain keeps telling me that "Gelato" means "Ice Cream"...

Well, forget my post then.

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Yes, in the US, the two are very different.

Think of ice cream as a Bic Mac.

Think of gelato as freaking filet mignon.

Ice Cream


Gelato

i was in florence for 9 days and all the food i has was amazing. that was in 2001.

Tinwhistler said:

Gelato

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:hail:

SJ, it's just that for Americans, ice cream is what you'd call 'American ice cream', and gelato is what you'd call 'italian ice cream'.

Pretty easy huh?

I am going to have to disagree on the gelatto issue. You're comparing apples and oranges. Fresh made anything will almost always trump processed store-bought fair. That's just how it goes.

There are some outrageous creameries near dairies that sell some amazing ice cream. Creamier and richer than any gelatto I've had. I haven't had gelatto in Italy, but I assume the stuff we get in the states is close enough.

Besides, if Necronic didn't think the Italian gelatto was all that, big deal. A lot of touristic ideas about places/foods tend to be better than the actual thing. It's the unexpected events/people/places that makes traveling so great.

drawn_inward said:

I am going to have to disagree on the gelatto issue. You're comparing apples and oranges. Fresh made anything will almost always trump processed store-bought fair. That's just how it goes.

There are some outrageous creameries near dairies that sell some amazing ice cream. Creamier and richer than any gelatto I've had. I haven't had gelatto in Italy, but I assume the stuff we get in the states is close enough.

Besides, if Necronic didn't think the Italian gelatto was all that, big deal. A lot of touristic ideas about places/foods tend to be better than the actual thing. It's the unexpected events/people/places that makes traveling so great.

Click to expand...

I just got back from 3 days Rome and went to Florence/Venice last year and I can say to you that really great Italian gelatto is much better then any ice cream I ever had, I never went to the US though so no I can't say I know how to compare the two but I can tell you that gelatto is really really great. The best I had in those two trips was when we stopped in Luca on or way to the airport in Milan.

An other thing I would recommend, if your going to Italy, go to a really nice local bar (not the tourist ones) and order a aperitif before going to eat in an other restaurant. Most of the time you get so many good appetizers you don't feel like eating much after that.

Rome is great, did you do the walk of the famous fountains? went to the Phantenon? I found that to be the two things I enjoyed the most.

drawn_inward said:

I am going to have to disagree on the gelatto issue. You're comparing apples and oranges. Fresh made anything will almost always trump processed store-bought fair. That's just how it goes.

There are some outrageous creameries near dairies that sell some amazing ice cream. Creamier and richer than any gelatto I've had. I haven't had gelatto in Italy, but I assume the stuff we get in the states is close enough. .

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That may be the case. But I think the comparison was "meh, I don't get gelato. It's just like blue bell." You know, specifically comparing it to over-processed store-bought fare.

The counter-point some of us were making is "well, you must've gotten some pretty bad gelato, then"

I don't think anyone was making the case of "you suck for not liking gelato like I do".

Tinwhistler said:

I don't think anyone was making the case of "you suck for not liking gelato like I do".

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Wait, what? Are you saying I built this effigy for nothing? I mean, I even got a flamethrower just for the occasion... Do you have any idea how much it costs to rent a flamethrower?

flamethrower don't mix nice whit GELATTO

drawn_inward said:

I haven't had gelatto in Italy, but I assume the stuff we get in the states is close enough.

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The gelatto I've had here in the US is not even close.

So let me get this straight if this ice cream if better for you how come we dont have it over here? Instead of the fatty ice cream we eat instead?

Necronic said:

(BTW, Food in italy is over rated. Aside from cured meats and cheeses, and a few restaurants, the food was an overall dissapointment.)

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Well, this proves it. Necronic is a sludge demon from the netherrealms, there is nothing else to explain his lack of taste buds.

BlackCat said:

So let me get this straight if this ice cream if better for you how come we dont have it over here? Instead of the fatty ice cream we eat instead?

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I don't think anyone said gelatto is better for you. It's made differently and is not the same as what we call ice cream in the states.