Gelato quest!

Four years ago, we established the lovely routine of going to the Hotel San Giacomo in downtown Paderno del Grappa for a nightly post-dinner gelato. We looked forward to resuming this tradition upon our return.

Hotel San Giacomo, just off via San Giacomo and the main roundabout of Paderno.Lower level houses a bar with gelateria.

There were gelaterias in London, but Mike was adamant –save it for Italy! So, we abstained.

Our first night here, we strolled to Hotel San Giacomo for our inaugural gelato.  Something was deeply wrong. The gelato display was no longer an elegant extension of the bar, it was a chintzy-looking plastic cart plugged into the opposite wall. The gelatos themselves looked shiny and somehow “off.” We ordered and ate, but our fears were confirmed: this was no longer good gelato. Drastic measures were required – this was Paderno del Grappa’s one and only gelateria! How were we to have our daily dose?

The next nearest village is Crespano del Grappa, one kilometer away. It is home to at least two gelaterias, both of which we had sampled last time, and both were good.  We really wanted a place we could walk to, as this is the new joy of our apartment’s location – we can walk to everything in the course of our day. The walk to Crespano is a tad challenging for an evening jaunt, though, as there is a portion of the only road to the center of town that has no sidewalk, is narrow, and along which the cars can and do speed. Light fades shortly after 7:30: evening walking becomes perilous. We didn’t want to die for our gelato, really.

We set out for Crespano one evening, leaving early and wearing light colors. It was  fairly nice weather, and all went according to plan. The gelato was great! We have a new, favorite destination:

This is the adornment over the doorway of the Gelateria Artigianale, "Peccati di Gola." I looked up 'peccato' and 'gola' in my pocket I/E, E/I dictionary, and got 'sin' and 'throat'. "Sins of the throat?" I asked my Italian teacher, Michela Marin, a local, about the phrase and she almost blushed. She said, "This is something you might not know about." Turns out, there are many enumerated sins, if Catholic. One of them is indeed the sin of the throat, translated into English as "gluttony." But how does that translate into a gelateria? In Italian, this completely idiomatic  phrase means much more. She said that one uses it lightly, even saying, "I would like a sin of the throat," and one would mean that one intends to indulge one's sweet tooth, and one is usually referring to going to get a gelato. Plus, as an added tweak, this particular den of iniquity is located just across the street from the local church square: "In your face, Mother Church! I'm gonna sin with my throat!" Naughty gelateria, naughty!

Two shots from the gelateria in Bassano del Grappa. This place, and many others, list their ingredients for every flavor out for folks to peruse. Most ingredients in such places are very good quality.

Since that evening, we have walked to Crespano a couple more times. However, time and weather have conspired against us to make the late-evening walk even more dangerous. Now we drive. So much for the health aspect of the event. 

And, since we're driving anyway, we have broadened the quest and cast further afield, adding gelaterias in nearby large city, Bassano del Grappa (remember the locale name-tie to the over-looming local peak?) and smaller Castelcucco (I don't have a clue what this name refers to, but it sounds suspiciously wacky). Both have their advantages. Bassano's has a great selection of fruit gelati, and even two flavors of rice milk based gelato (!!), while Castelcucco's has a vast selection and sit-down space inside, a definite plus for the up-coming cooler weather. Yes, we will remain stalwart and continue to eat gelato even in the late fall and early winter. We are dedicated.

"Illy" gelateria in Castelcucco.

[Kevin Johnsrude, add these to your flavor collection and make a mental note to try them out: Noccioloso (my new fave) and Bacio (a close contender, name meaning 'kiss'). The first is like chocolate swirl, but the vanilla portion is fortified with hazlenuts ala Nutella, and the chocolate swirl is a fudgey thing. Yowzers. Bacio is chocolate base with whole, roasted hazlenuts sprinkled throughout. You think you don't like hazlenuts? Keep that judgment in check until you've sampled these. Buonissimo!]