Beware: Gelato rip-off in Florence, Italy

Brief Background

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Italian culture is the wonderful Italian "gelato". Gelato is equivalent to (but not the same as) American ice cream. The first difference between gelato and ice cream is its fat content: Ice cream is usually made with more butterfat than gelato (about 10% to 18% versus 4% to 8%). Gelato is also more dense (translation: you get more good stuff and less air) than ice cream as it is made with 35% less air. Unlike ice cream, gelato ingredients are not 'homogenized' which means it melts faster which means you experience the taste faster. Traditionally a Northern Italy produced a milk-based gelato, while the Southern regions came up with a fruit-and-water based sorbet.

An especially delightful part of the gelato experience is that you are allowed to combine flavors without additional costs. One cup or cone of gelato typically costs from 1.30 euro to 2.50 euro and will usually get you two flavors (this buys a decent serving size...if you want to be indulgent of course there are larger cup/cone options).

A Disturbing and Shamful Incident

In Florence there is a store called Very Good which is in fact not "very good" at all. It is entirely possible (and quite probable) that this shop provides one with the worst gelato experience in all of Italy. The shop's display is very tempting in its array of flavors, but buyers must beware of tricky and misleading vendors. Prices for the cups and cones are not displayed in the store and as we have learned, you may not assume that the price is reasonable. The modus operandi of vendors in Very Good is to distract the customer from the price even if that means blatantly ignoring price inquiries, or sneakily distracting from the question. Despite several inquiries, it was not until we had reached the register and been rung up that we discovered the price of one Very Good gelato was an unheard-of nine (9) euro. Several different groups of students fell prey to the 'Very Good' scam on different occasions and all are thoroughly disgusted by Very Good's ice cream scheming ways.

A Hard Learned Lesson

As you can see from the images above, the amount of ice cream received certainly does not warrant 9 euro. For 9 euro, you should get a vat ice cream; after 9 euro of ice cream, you should be gloriously close to being sick, you should be waddling away from the store in gluttonous delight. We later stumbled upon a smaller gelato shop located off of the main plaza that was offering a promotion that promised half priced gelato if one purchases at least 400 grams...we were able to purchase 500g (which more than easily split 3 ways) for only 3.20 euro (plus it came with cookies).

In short...buyers in any part of Italy (but especially in Florence) should be extremely aware of the cost of a product/service before it is rendered. Also, you will find that the better deals and lower prices are inevitably not in the main plaza of a city...explore the outskirts to find more intriguing and more satisfying shopping and dining.

Sarah Wade