Watch the top ten gelateria’s in Florence

FLORENCE, ITALY – Whitney Richelle and Natalie Roth of http://www.studentsville.it/ take you to the top gelateria’s in Florence, Italy. The history of gelato dates back to frozen desserts served in ancient Rome and Egypt made from snow and ice brought down from mountaintops and preserved below ground.

Later, frozen desserts appeared during banquets at the Medici court in Florence. In fact, the Florentine architect Bernardo Buontalenti is said to have invented modern ice cream in 1565, as he presented his recipe and his innovative refrigerating techniques to Catherine de’ Medici. She in turn brought the novelty to France, where in 1686 the Sicilian fisherman Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli perfected the first ice cream machine.

The popularity of gelato among larger shares of the population however only increased in the 1920s–1930s in the northern Italian city of Varese, where the first gelato cart was developed. Italy is the only country where the market share of handmade gelato versus industrial one is over 55%. Nowadays over 5,000 Italian gelaterie all over the world occupy more than 15,000 gelatai.