Summer means gelato. Let’s go to Vivoli, the family who runs the historical ice cream shop of Florence
When the temperature during Summer rise up the best thing to do is to eat a great gelato and we suggest to try “Vivoli”, the anciest ice cream shop of Florence, a place where already today is possible to taste a delicious gelato. An incredible taste is Lemon!
To understand how famous this place (in the neighborhood of Santa Croce) was, there is a post card of Sixties sent from USA without any address just with the write “Vivoli – Ice Cream – Europe” and it reached without any problem the recipients. Sometimes there is a line that take all the street, but the ice-cream there it’s a must!
In the 1929 Serafino Vivoli opened a milk shop that shortly became a meeting point for the people living in the neighborhood, where everybody went to take a coffee or to by the whipped cream on Sundays. In 1932 Vivoli’s brothers (Serafino and Raffaello) started to produce gelato. The natural ice came from Saltino glacier (a place near Vallombrosa) produced during winter and conserved till Summer. The ice was delivered to Florence during the night in order to reduce the melting.
But it’s thanks to Piero, Raffaello’s son, that during 60s and 70s the shop became worldwide famous, the gelateria was mentioned in many tour guide books with the same importance as one of the monuments symbol of Florence. Today the successors continue the activity with passion and they also added a workshop of refined pastry-making.
The ice-cream shop Vivoli is in “via dell’isola delle Stinche” in front of the San Simone Church dating back to thirteenth century 
