Probably the Best Ice Cream in the World
- October 26, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
MagdaDH from Perth, United Kingdom
Italian ice-cream is renowned throughout the world, and it's quite possible that one of the best places in Italy (and thus one of the best places overall) for ice-cream is a small gelateria in Trieste: Gelateria Zampolli, at the busy Via Ghega (number 10), a stone's throw from the Trieste train station and a bit further away from the most touristy areas of the city.
We were recommended Zampolli by the nice lady in the travel agency at which we booked our rooms, and as it was about two minutes from our pensione, we made a habit of visiting every day of our stay in Trieste (occasionally twice) as their ice-cream is simply mind-blowing.
Long lines of the Trieste inhabitants, many buying large family-sized trays of the ice-cream bear witness to the Zampolli's deserved popularity.
It's possible to sit inside, and in addition to standard ice-cream scoops the gelateria offers a menu of ornate coppas of all kinds as well as coffee and soft drinks; most people just buy plain ice-cream though - but what ice-cream!
The selection is huge, and to my eternal delight there was almost as many sorbets and fruit flavours as "normal" (i.e. creamy and chocolaty) ice-creams.
Each of the varieties we tried (including most of the fruit ones, and quite a few of the others) was simply wonderful: fresh, bursting with intense flavour, clearly tasting of what it should be tasting. My favourite type of ice-cream has actually no or little cream in it, and of the Zampolli's offerings I particularly loved their raspberry (lampone) and their frutti di bosco (fruits of the forest, with blackberry being dominant) sorbets. Green apple, pineapple and my daughter's favourite lemon were also exceptionally good, while the flavour called Mon Cheri (rich, dark chocolate with cherries: a bit like Hungarian torte) was the best of the creamy ones I tried.
All in all, the best ice-cream I have ever tried and possibly the best ice-cream in the world!
Open 9am till 1am, closed Tuesdays (it's so good that I would seriously suggest that if you have one day in Trieste, don't make it Tuesday).
From journal Northern Italy 2009