I feel like it’s the law that you have to have an ice cream when you’re by the sea. And maybe generally when you’re on a summer holiday? While in Italy, Dr HH and I decided to treat ourselves to a gelato every day. We hadn’t planned this beforehand, but somehow it just happened, and once we noticed the trend we decided to plough on. We couldn’t have done this without some solid vegan-friendly options in the Cinque Terre, where there isn’t too much online info about vegan options.
In Corniglia on our first night, we found two vegan options almost directly opposite each other. We went to this one, Gelateria Corniglia. It was on Via Fieschi, the main street through the village (just a few doors down from Pan e Vin).
They had about six vegan options listed on the blackboard, so I treated myself to the dark chocolate. Although I got the cup, the cones were also vegan. It was €2 for this, which I later realised was quite a good deal for the tourist trail in Italy.
Just across the street at Via Fieschi 74 was Alberto Gelateria, which I didn’t visit, but which also advertised vegan flavours and has more of a social media presence.
The next day in Manarola we spotted the Gelateria Cinque Terre – alas, closed on Wednesdays, which is precisely when we were there. Again, it was on the main street and should be easy to spot.
That meant we had to find another option for our daily gelato. We finally found it in Monterosso, the last of the villages (and truthfully, the worst – the centre isn’t so pretty and it’s mostly a beach resort, but the beaches are all stones rather than sand). I had given up hope of spotting any vegan-friendly signs, so told Dr HH to just grab a dairy ice cream for himself. As he was ordering at Gelateria La Scogliera, he pointed out a sign on the counter advertising vegan cones.
I enquired, and found that they had four fruity vegan flavours, plus a vegan dark chocolate. Hurrah! We were both so hot and thirsty that we each got two fruity vegan scoops. On the left is my mango and raspberry cone, and on the right Dr HH’s mango and lemon. I have never been so refreshed as when I devoured this by the sea!
So if you decide to follow my lead and have an ice cream every day when you’re in Italy, the good news is that it’s easy to do even in the Cinque Terre!
Herbivores' Heaven 
I was pleasantly surprised by how much vegan ice cream we found in Italy!
Yes, it was surprisingly easy. The flavours got more exciting as we travelled east too, which was great.
Boooy! Look at the color of that mango ice cream!
I know! It was so refreshing too.
Thats how to do vacation! XD Ice cream everyday!
It was an incredible fortnight!
Vegan ice cream! Now I really have to go to Italy. When we were in Sicily I was delighted to find that most granitas were vegan, though I think there was a mix up at some point because I got sick like I’d eaten dairy, but granita isn’t the same as Gelato at all! There’s an Italian Gelato place in Leicester that always has vegan options and all that would make it better is if it was in sunny Italy…
I saw a lot of granita labelled vegan, but I kept complaining to my boyfriend: “That’s just flavoured ice! I want something creamy!” Fortunately we were well catered for!
It’s tasty! Like a cross between a slushie and a sorbet. Refreshing when it’s really hot. Just not ice cream…
That’s a great haul of vegan ice cream! I hope the rest of your trip was as good for frozen vegan treats as Cinque Terre.
It actually got better and better! Just wait for my Venice and Bologna posts!
The fruity gelato cones look so refreshing; I think a lemon/raspberry combo would have been my choice!
I find lemon a little tart for ice cream, but the raspberry was really good.