Gelateria Vernazza

Artisan gelato, made from the produce of the land

The counter keeps to three things and does them properly: rich creams, fresh fruit ice creams and cakes. The fruit gelati are the most refreshing expression of the shop and the ones the Ligurian summer was made for; the creams show the richer side of the same craft. The sourcing line the family works to is simple, the best produce of their land, organic and of high quality, and it is the reason the fruit flavours taste of something.

This is a gelateria and nothing else. There is no kitchen behind it and no coffee programme running alongside, which is what keeps the case narrow and the turnover fast.

A family counter on Vernazza’s main street

The shop dates to 1986, when the Giannoni family opened a bar and gelateria under the Gelateria Vernazza name. The story runs through a La Spezia period from 1992 and a return to Vernazza to recommit to gelato, then a handover to the next generation of the family in 2012. The motto the family works under, love, passion and tradition, has outlasted all of those moves.

The format is a central, walk-in Vernazza counter rather than a seated stop. Choose from the display, order, and step back into the pedestrian flow with the cone in hand. That puts the shop squarely in the rhythm of Cinque Terre walking days, where the point is something cold and quick between one village and the next rather than a long sit.

Order the fresh fruit ice cream first

Start with the fresh fruit ice creams. They are the clearest expression of the sourcing, and the most useful order on a hot afternoon on the Ligurian coast. If you want contrast, take one fruit flavour and one of the richer creams in the same cup, which is the way to read the counter in a single order.

The other route is straightforward: a classic artisan gelato from the case, then cake if it is in that day’s selection. What the shop trades on is not awards or an elaborate menu but continuity, a family that has made gelato in the same village since 1986, using local organic produce, in a case that stays deliberately small. On a busy afternoon the queue moves in a few minutes, which is exactly what a walking day in the Cinque Terre asks of it.