Last week, I went to a very important event in Milan. It's been making headlines and has been the talk of the town for days.


No I'm not talking about Expo, I'm talking about the Gelato Festival!


Last year, I missed the Gelato Festival, much to my overwhelming disappointment. We walked by on one morning, peered at the tantalising flavours and decided to come back the next day. By which point the entire city had descended on the stalls of course. So we decided to go back the following (and last) day. By which point every single flavour had sold out and they were beginning to pack up. Cue heart break.


I was NOT going to let that happen this year!

We headed down one evening to see what the situation was.


The festival is a lot smaller this year but at least that means that you can feasibly try all the flavours! On purchasing your ticket, you get to choose three of the competing artisan flavours and taste the two sponsor flavours, Peringotti and Nutella. Then, once you've voted, you get an extra cup for free. And even better, if you download the app and show the organisers, you get ANOTHER one! That's seven ice cream tastings people!


The flavours will vary from city to city as the best gelaterie compete against each other. Milan's offerings were orange and offelle biscuits, orange honey and rosemary, peanut butter and gianduja, chocolate and cherry, lemon ginger and tequila, orange and almond and an incredible mix of white coffee, figs and chocolate!

But we also couldn't resist the opportunity to try real, authentic Nutella gelato.



Ridiculously thick and creamy, a real hunger killer.

My favourite however was the orange honey and rosemary. It was delicately flavoured, milky and perfectly perfumed with rosemary. However, as most flavours had strange names, I misremembered its name and voted for another by mistake. So gelato makers out there, stop being fancy with your names! It could cost you votes!



Aside from the gelato, there are two really great things about the festival.

1) If you can't manage it all in one go (this was me, the weakling that I am), you can go back as many times as you like with your ticket

2) Whilst the festival has left Milan for now (it'll be back in September), it's travelling all around Italy as well as to London, Amsterdam and Valencia! It's in Turin right now before moving on to Rome and then London.


Get all the information you need on their website here and happy gelato hunting!