Is there anything better than walking along a quiet canal with a cone of proper artisanal gelato melting faster than you can eat it?
In most Italian tourist cities, that little pleasure has been replaced by fluorescent mountains of ice cream piled up in plastic tubs. The good news… If you know where to look in Venice, you can still find a couple of artisanal ice cream shops.
In fact, there are still gelatieri churning their bases every single morning, using seasonal fruit from Sant’Erasmo and pistachios from Bronte. Basically, ice cream makers that still care about fresh and quality ingredients to prepare their gelato.
Some of them sit right next to the tourist traps, and from the outside they look almost identical. Read below to learn where to go to eat great ice cream in Venice.
Best gelato in Venice
Below are 7 gelaterias in Venice that you should add to your itinerary: a mix of historic institutions, tiny family-run counters and a couple of places tucked far enough away from San Marco that you’ll mostly be queuing behind Venetians.
Map of the best gelaterias in Venice
Here’s the map with the 7 ice cream shops in Venice listed below. Save it on your phone before you head out. Venice has a talent for making you forget where you were going, and gelato waits for no one.
7 Places to try authentic gelato in Venice
1. La Mela Verde
Here’s one of the few gelaterie that Venetians keep going back to. La Mela Verde sits on a quiet fondamenta a few minutes behind Piazza San Marco, run by two young Venetians who take their gelato extremely seriously.
The pistachio and the fig are outstanding, the fruit sorbets taste aggressively of actual fruit, and there’s usually a seasonal flavour on the board that’s worth ordering blind.
It’s small, slightly hidden, and there’s often a queue trailing along the canal, which, in Venice, is always the right sign. Note that it’s seasonal, generally open from Carnival through late autumn.
📍 Address: Fondamenta de l’Osmarin, Castello 4977
⏰ Opening hours: Mon–Sun 11:00am–10:00pm (seasonal, roughly Carnival to late autumn)
2. Gelateria Nico
A Venetian institution since 1935, and the reason half the city has a sweet tooth.
Nico sits on the Zattere with one of the largest terraces in Venice, looking straight across the Giudecca canal. But you don’t come here for a scoop; you come for the gianduiotto: a slab of hazelnut-chocolate gelato drowned in whipped cream and served in a little cup. It’s so indulgent.
Go late afternoon, sit on the wooden decking, and watch the light go pink over the Giudecca. It’s one of the great cheap luxuries of the city.
📍 Address: Fondamenta Zattere al Ponte Longo, Dorsoduro 922
⏰ Opening hours: Mon–Sun 7:00am–10:00pm
3. Gelateria Il Doge
Right by Campo Santa Margherita (the other shop is near Campo San Tomà), in the middle of Venice’s most lived-in square, Il Doge has been the students’ gelateria for decades.
Their signature is the Crema del Doge: a rich zabaione-style cream shot through with candied fruit and chocolate. In summer the thing to get is a granita, made properly with fresh fruit and crushed ice rather than syrup.
Grab a cone, sit on the steps in the campo with everyone else, and you’ll have a very good idea of what a Venetian evening actually looks like.
📍 Address: Rio Terà Canal, Dorsoduro 3058/A (just off Campo Santa Margherita)
⏰ Opening hours: Mon–Sun 11:00am–late (shorter hours in winter)
3. Bacaro del Gelato
Out along the Fondamenta della Misericordia in Cannaregio, in the middle of Venice’s best stretch of bacari, you can find this small gelateria, very frequented by locals.
You can find flavours like custard-and-biscuit combinations, salted pistachio, seasonal fruit, and the portions are honest. It stays open late too, which makes it the perfect full stop at the end of a bacaro tour.
You’ll be a good 20 minutes from San Marco here, and you’ll notice the difference immediately: in the queue, in the prices, in the overall experience.
📍 Address: Fondamenta de la Misericordia, Cannaregio 2499
⏰ Opening hours: Mon–Sun 10:00am–10:00pm
4. Gelateria Ducale
This one is a proper local secret, tucked into a quiet calle near Santi Giovanni e Paolo where almost no visitor thinks to look.
Everything is made in tiny batches with seasonal fruit and natural ingredients only, and the flavour board changes constantly. You might find peach and basil, rum and chocolate, or, if you’re lucky and it’s spring, castraure artichoke from Sant’Erasmo, which sounds mad and tastes wonderful.
Prices are fair, the staff is lovely and will happily explain what’s fresh that day.
📍 Address: Calle Larga Giacinto Gallina, Cannaregio 6381
⏰ Opening hours: Mon–Sun 12:00pm–10:00pm
6. Gelateria Gallonetto
A tiny counter on Salizada San Lio, halfway between Rialto and Santa Maria Formosa, with no seating, a short flavour list and a queue that says everything you need to know.
The gelato is kept properly in round silver tins, made fresh daily, and the texture is the thing people talk about: dense, cold and intensely creamy.
The pistachio, stracciatella and tiramisù are the classics to go for, and they’ll happily line your cone with melted dark chocolate or roll it in chopped nuts if you ask. Expect to wait at least 10 minutes at peak times.
📍 Address: Salizada San Lio, Castello 5727
⏰ Opening hours: Sun–Thu 10:30am–11:30pm; Fri–Sat 10:30am–12amm
7. Gelato Fantasy
The most convenient entry on this list, with a handful of shops dotted between San Marco, San Polo and Castello, including one just steps from Piazza San Marco, which is normally where I’d tell you to run.
The gelato is made in-house, and the portions are generous for the area. They do brilliantly with the classics and the show-off flavours alike, and there’s a proper vegan and sugar-free selection, which is still surprisingly hard to find in Venice.
If you’re staying near San Marco and want something reliable without hiking across the city, this is your answer.
📍 Address: Calle dei Fabbri, San Marco 929 (also San Marco 925, San Polo 602, Castello 4613)
⏰ Opening hours: Mon–Sun, roughly 10:00am–12:00am (shorter in winter)
A few last tips before you eat gelato in Venice:
Carry some cash. Most of these places take cards now, but the smaller ones prefer coins and it’s faster for everyone.
Expect to pay around €2–€3 per scoop (pallina in Italian). Anything above that near Piazza San Marco is paying for the postcode, not the gelato.
Look at the height. If the gelato looks like a fluffy peak a foot above the counter, it’s full of air and stabilisers. Proper gelato is dense, flat and often hidden under metal lids (the pozzetti), because it melts fast and doesn’t like the light.
Say ‘cono’ o ‘coppetta’ (Cone or cup). That’s the only Italian you need.
Where to try gelato in Venice
Venice may have more gelato signs than it has real gelaterias, but the ones that do it properly are worth crossing the city for.
From the historic terrace at Nico to the tiny counter at Gallonetto and the seasonal experiments at Ducale, each one tells you something different about how Venetians actually take their gelato seriously.
My advice is to skip the neon mountains near the station and other touristy areas of the city, and you’ll leave Venice knowing exactly what real gelato tastes like.
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