The Best Ice Cream Parlours in Europe

Evening queues

Most of the European parlours are small counters in old town centres and on seafronts, and the busy hours come after dinner on summer evenings. Queues at that time are normal, and most move quickly. Flavours run out as the night goes on. At Django Gelato in Ermoupoli on Syros the line is shorter in the morning. Some shops shut for the cold months, among them Panunzio's Kitchen Gelati Italiani in Bristol, and Quattro-Si in Pruszków opens only for the season.

The Adriatic

Across the Adriatic from Italy, the old ports of Croatia and Montenegro make gelato in the Italian way. Rovinj, in Istria, has two shops. Ombra Laboratorio del Gelato serves gelato in a Sicilian brioche. Neve, on a side street of the old town, is run by a couple who make the ice cream themselves and take cash only. Gelateria Emiliana in Split is near Diocletian's Palace and bakes its own cones with chocolate at the bottom. Marshall's Gelato sits on a narrow lane in Kotor Old Town.

Britain

The British parlours have little in common with each other. Panunzio's Kitchen Gelati Italiani is a gelateria in the Redland district of Bristol. Tagg Lane Dairy at Youlgreave is a farm shop that makes ice cream from the milk of its own Jersey cows, and visitors can watch a robot milk them. Notarianni Ices, near the seafront in Blackpool, makes a single flavour, vanilla soft serve, and builds sundaes and milkshakes around it.

Soft serve

Soft serve comes out of a machine in a swirl, and two parlours in the north of the continent sell it. Raddens Eis in Burg on the island of Fehmarn serves it from a window in six cone sizes. At Quattro-Si, an Italian family's parlour near Warsaw, many customers have it added on top of a scoop.