The Gelato Rule: Savoring the Unfamiliar

If you are traveling through Italy, you are allowed to eat gelato every day. Don’t ask me where I read this, but trust me – no matter what your diet is at home, you have permission to eat gelato (at least) once a day while exploring this beautiful country.  

Gelato is a distinctly Italian dessert that is similar to ice cream, but is richer and denser, with less butterfat and less air than its American relative. The history of this frozen treat dates back to classical antiquity, when ancient Romans would indulge in a mixture of honey swirled with ice from Mount Etna or Mount Vesuvius. This was eventually developed into the gelato we know and love today in the late sixteenth century by Bernado Buontalenti, who was also an artist, architect, stage designer, and pyrotechnician. (If you visit Florence on our Essential Italy or Classic Italy tour, you can see the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello and the grotto in the Boboli Gardens, both of which he designed.)

As an alternative to ice cream, gelato is my preferred way to cool down on a hot day spent exploring the streets of Italy. However, what appears like a gift (daily gelato!) can also be a curse (daily decisions!).

When you enter a typical gelateria, you are often greeted by a tantalizing display of options in a rainbow of flavors and mix-ins. Traditional flavors include cioccolato, vaniglia, pistacchio, tiramisu, and panna cotta. But they can also get a bit more adventurous: I’ve encountered basil, parmesan, mojito, violet, and olive oil, for example.

This is why I invented the Gelato Rule. The rule states:  

When ordering gelato, choose a flavor you’ve never seen before.

Normally, my default gelato pick is Stracciatela. The name means little rags, and in a roundabout way was named after the soup stracciatela alla romana, in which egg pieces are broken up and (loosely) resemble miniature rags in the broth. Stracciatela gelato is made by churning a smooth cream base and adding in melted chocolate, which breaks down into bits and slivers (little rags) as the mixture cools and continues to churn. It’s a humble yet classy flavor. 

But I don’t want to have Stracciatela every day.

There’s no gelato flavor I want to have every day. 

In fact, there’s no experience I want to have every day. 

This is how the Gelato Rule was born, and subsequently grew to become a travel philosophy of mine. In fact, it was through invoking the Gelato Rule that I discovered Stracciatella in the first place.

By picking an unfamiliar flavor – ideally a flavor that is unique to a shop or region – it not only helps whittle down the myriad choices, but also creates a “familiar unfamiliar” moment that I can trace through my travels. And although I haven’t catalogued all of the unique flavors I’ve tried, I can mentally tick through multiple sun-baked memories where I’ve indulged in a sweet scoop served with that signature little spoon as I look out over a piazza or river or street full of scooters.

I have extended this manifesto to apply beyond gelato flavors, and to practically any menu I encounter, for the Gelato Rule carries an underlying permission: Eat the local dessert (no matter the time of day). This has led me to discover Blejska kremsnita in Slovenia, trdelník in Prague, Sacher Torte in Vienna, churros in Spain and Mexico, kulfi falooda in India, and bingsu in Seoul – often enjoyed during a mid-afternoon break. 

Ok, so maybe it’s not a big ask to encourage someone to eat a new dessert. But to those of us with a strong self-preservation streak, we may be tempted to choose the familiar when we find ourselves in unfamiliar surroundings. To choose Stracciatella. But if you’re choosing Stracciatella – the comfortable, the expected, the familiar – then why are you travelling in the first place?

So this is my advice: When life gives you a buffet of options, pick the new one. The weird one. Especially when you’re traveling. Because when you come back home, I’m sorry, but you just won’t be allowed to have gelato every day anymore. So remember to take advantage of each new opportunity while you can.

Buon appetito, my friend.   

Interested in a new flavor of travel? At Vaya we offer unique experiences for every palate, including cheese tasting at a local farm in Switzerland, an off-the-beaten-path foodie tour in Lisbon, and a private wine-tasting through vineyards in Bordeaux by E-bike.