Gelato in Firenze

1
Gelato in Firenze

• its lunchtime.
• You just ate a huge calzone.
• Youre feelin that craving

..mmmm.

• Hmmm

Where should you go?
2
It depends on what you value most in a gelateria.
quality

• of flavors

Si parla inglese?
Produzione Propria?

PRICE

• Hours of operation

3
Winter Quarter Gelato

• I started this project on a whim. Pure and
  simple. Even before it became a formal
  assignment for CS 99D I was out there doing
  research. Like most American students who
  study abroad in Florence, I eat lots of gelato.
  You could even say that this winter term I have
  been on a mission to try as many places as I
  could find. On the pages that follow I have
  compiled a few maps and a few charts and graphs
  in a feeble attempt to make some sense out of the
  mouth-watering business that rivals even the
  most famous art and the architecture of this
  Renaissance town. I have tried to be as precise
  as possible in collecting my data, but as we all
  know, Italian businesses rarely exhibit precise
  qualities. What follows is less of an exact
  picture and more of an approximate sketch of the
  Florentine gelaterie that I visited...

4
There are many gelateria in Florencesome right
in the center of town and some farther out.

• Some are heavenly.

• Some are not.

• So when its time for gelato,

its time to take a walk.
5
Locations
Festival Neri Vivoli Badiani Granducca
Frilli Pinguino Girasole Slurp Carraia
Veneta Perche No Antica Botega Ermini Mio
Bar (sans) Bar PonV(sans) Bar (sans) Maioli
Damiani Pergola DeMedici
Righi Carrozze Dolceneve Ghiottone
LAngolo Orafo Perso Fiorenza Bermude Tutti
Fruti Black Bar (sammont.) Stranamore(sammont.)
Moka Efti (sammont.) Bar Due P (sammont.)
Tabacchi (sammont.) Bar Past (sammont.) Il
Gelato (sammont.) Caffe Mokarico Carabe
Snack Self S (?) Dini Caffe (prato) Cabras
Moka Arra (Nestle)
Gelaterie are most concentrated in the highly
touristed center of Florence. Here they are
listed in descending order according to the
quality of coffee flavor gelato (my favorite!).
6
On this chart you can see that medium cups of
gelato get slightly more expensive toward the
middle part of the map (the center of the city)
and level off at 3000 lire as you get further
from the center (out of the touristed areas).
lt----------------The
Gelaterie are placed in order of location along
the horizontal axis of the map, reading from left
to right. ------------------gt
7
Before you decide which gelateria to visit based
on just location and price, it is important to
realize that all gelato is not created equal. In
Florence, there are some gelaterie who get their
gelato from a company called Sanson in Verona,
some who import from Sammontana in Empoli and
some who import from other companies in Rome. But
the best gelato by far comes from those gelaterie
who make their own. Among this subcategory, the
quality also varies. Accoring to the guide books,
many of the places in the center of town make
their gelato from mixes rather than from fresh
ingridients. Yet in gathering info from gelato
proprieters, none of them would admit using
anything but fresh ingridients. Ah well. Such is
life in Italy. So I took it upon myself to try
the product of each place to see which places
are the best, taking into account factors like
of flavors, whether they sell sugar cones or not,
and their range of available cup sizes/prices. I
tasted the coffee flavor at all the gelaterie
included in this report and the chocolate flavor
at most.
8
Make own gelato imported (random Rome) imported
(Sanson, Verona) imported (Sammontana, Empoli)
Origins
9
Relationship between number of flavors and
quality of coffee gelato
COFFEE RANKING 1 Festival 2 Neri 3
Vivoli 4 Badiani 5 Granducca 6 Frilli
7 Pinguino 8 Girasole 9 Slurp 10
Carraia 11 Veneta 12 Perche No 13 Antica 14
Botega 15 Ermini 16 Mio Bar (sans) 17 Bar
PonV(sans) 18 Bar (sans) 19 Maioli 20
Damiani 21 Pergola 22 DeMedici 23 Righi 24
Carrozze 25 Dolceneve 26 Ghiottone 27
LAngolo 28 Orafo 29 Perso 30 Fiorenza 31
Bermude 32 Tutti Fruti 33 Black Bar
(sammont.) 34 Stranamore(sammont.) 35 Moka Efti
(sammont.) 36 Bar Due P (sammont.) 37 Tabacchi
(sammont.) 38 Bar Past (sammont.) 39 Il Gelato
(sammon 40 Caffe Mokarico 41 Carabe 42 Snack
Self S (?) 43 Dini Caffe (prato) 44 Cabras 45
Moka Arra (Nestle)
high quality coffee gelato (to me) is of a
medium consistency (between American ice-dream
and mouse) not syrupy, and slightly sweet but not
enough to overpower the rich coffee flavor.
You can see by this graph that in general,
gelaterie with more flavors also are highly
ranked in coffee quality. This is perhaps
because these places specialize in gelato while
those of lower rank are also bars or cafes.
Frilli (6) is an obvious exceptiona small place
that sells groceries but also has great gelato.
10
Sugar Cone Distribution
sell sugar cones dont sell sugar cones sell only
small sugar cones
As you can see, they sell large sugar cones in
the touristed central area and small or no cones
in the local areas on the periphery.
11
OVERVIEW
On this table you will find the raw data that I
have been working with including HOURS OF
OPERATION and ENGLISH SPOKEN--two categories that
I have not charted but which may be useful.
12
THE END

• Okay.

Youve got the scoop.
Now go get some gelato.
Jennifer Zwarich . jzwarich_at_leland.stanford.edu