I've come back from the land of milk and honey, or rather, pasta and gelato, and I'm here to tell you that heaven exists. I found it at a place called Come Il Latte, an artisan gelato shop near the train station in Rome. It has -- wait for it -- a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN.
They put a house-made waffle cone under the fountain so that it fills the bottom and coats the sides with delicious melted chocolate. Then they pile gelato on top. In other words, it's a grown-up Drumstick. It turns out that this is fairly common at the really good places.
But that's not the only reason my life was changed. I'd been to Italy before and eaten my fair share of gelato. The new-school artisan shops I visited have turned it back into an art form: No piled masses of dyed-green pistachio there but rather pale, true pistachio in metal canisters.
The other thing that blew my mind: Some of the shops listed the cacao origin on their chocolate flavors! I saw Madagascar and Ecuador, and one even listed Porcelana (not an origin but a highly desirable type of cacao). I tried to find out more, but the language barrier prevented it. Can anyone tell me what I was seeing and if this is common?
Where are your favorite gelato shops in the U.S., and, more importantly, New York (so I can go to them)?
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