kellycrull.com - expat life in Spain

Any traveler who has been to Italy will tell you the number-one attraction is not actually the Pantheon or Vatican City or the statue of David or the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Colosseum.

No. Actually, it’s not even old. It’s made every day. It’s not expensive. It only costs about 2 euros or so. It’s not unique in any way. You’ll see everyone on the street with one.

The real attraction is gelado.

To the untrained eye, gelado is your average ice cream cone. But as I’ve said, give any traveler more than a day or two in Italy, and they’ll tell you differently.

Unfortunately, part of what makes gelado Italy’s number-one attraction is that it can’t be replicated outside of the country. Or at least that’s what I thought until I found a gelado review in a magazine for Internationals in Spain.

My new gelado place is called Ricci. It’s the real thing. And it’s in Madrid. Ricci serves gelado that’s as good as any shop you’ll find in Rome. I can’t tell you exactly why. I did actually see a special about the difference between ice cream and gelado on the Discovery channel once, but I can’t remember any of it, so you’ll have to believe me that regardless of if you’ve seen the Discovery special or not, you will know gelado when you taste it.

It’s like falling in love that way. You don’t know you’re in love until you’re in love.

Our friend Julie is in love. She’s in love with gelado. Julie is our gelado poster child. Let me tell you why.

Last Wednesday, a week ago today, some friends and I were at Bangkok, a Thai restaurant, and we got talking about gelado. April and I have introduced lots of our friends to Ricci, so when Julie asked us to tell her what gelado is, she got an ear-full from everyone around the table.

The only important information Julie didn’t get was how to actually find the Ricci store in Madrid. See, this is our rule. The only way our friends go to Ricci for the first time is if they go with us. Not a bad idea, eh?

So, Julie set up a date with us to go to Ricci the following Tuesday, which apparently in her estimation as an avid ice cream lover was unbearable–6 days was too long to wait.

In fact, two days after our dinner at Bangkok, Julie was on the streets of Madrid walking into random restaurants and photo shops asking if anyone behind the counter knew anything about “gelado” or “helado italiano”.

Turns out, Ricci is no secret. Julie had enough locals pointing their fingers down the street that she was at Ricci selecting her first delicious flavors in no time.

And here’s where it gets really interesting. Four days later we met up with Julie to go to Ricci, and she told us she had been to Ricci every day for the last 4 days, and get this, she had tried 16 flavors. That’s 4 flavors every day for 4 days. Now there’s a poster child.

The saga continues. April and I went to Ricci’s for gelado with Julie yesterday. Today I talked to a friend on the phone, and this friend said she had gelado with Julie this afternoon.

What can I say? It’s love at first sight.