By Euronews Travel
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Europe may be home to creamy Italian gelato and elegant French parfaits, but the continent’s best ice cream isn’t always the most obvious.
From Lapland to the lowlands, local traditions come to life across Europe in unexpected ice cream creations. Think pasta-shaped sundaes, chewy, goat’s milk cones that don’t melt in the sun and a very special treat for breakfast – yes, breakfast.
Here are five scoops of ice cream worth travelling for in Europe.
Germany’s spaghettieis surprise
Don’t be fooled: this isn’t pasta. Spaghettieis is a playful German invention that mimics a plate of spaghetti.
It’s made with vanilla ice cream squeezed through a press to resemble noodles, then topped with strawberry sauce “marinara” and white chocolate “Parmesan.”
The German treat was invented in 1969 by Dario Fontanella in Mannheim. While purists might want to visit his Eis Fontanella for the original version, the dish today has become a beloved classic and can be found across Germany.
In Munich, locals still line up at family-run Eiscafé Sarcletti – a fixture in the city since 1879 – where you can order the nostalgic dish in a dozen creative variations.
Sicily’s brioche con gelato breakfast
In Sicily, ice cream isn’t just for dessert. Locals like to beat the summer heat with a brioche con gelato. For breakfast.
A split, slightly sweet brioche bun comes stuffed with scoops of creamy gelato – or with granita on the side, if you prefer – and is often topped with whipped cream or nuts. The pairing may sound indulgent, but it’s as common as espresso on the island.
The tradition dates to the 1800s and reflects the Sicilian love of contrasts – hot and cold, soft and firm, rich and refreshing. Classic flavours like pistachio, almond and stracciatella (vanilla gelato with chocolate swirled through it) are perennial favourites.
Brioche con gelato is usually served with a spoon, but you can eat it like a sandwich, too. You’ll find it everywhere in Palermo or along the coast in towns like Taormina and Noto. For a classic, try Don Peppinu in Catania, where the pistachio brioche is legendary.
Türkiye’s chewy, resiny delight
Dondurma isn’t your average scoop of ice cream. Typically made with goat’s milk, salep (orchid root flour), mastic (resin) and sugar, Türkiye’s traditional ice cream is elastic, chewy and slow to melt. So much so that it’s often eaten with a knife and fork.
The treat dates back centuries to the Kahramanmaraş region in the southeast, but it’s now ubiquitous across Türkiye, from village fairs to Istanbul’s promenades.
Vendors often put on a show, flipping cones upside down or pulling the ice cream like taffy to amuse customers. Some will even play a cat-and-mouse game with you, but rest assured that it’s all for fun.
Popular flavours include pistachio, chocolate and cherry, but you can get more adventurous with variations such as saffron almond, clotted cream and piney mastic.
In Istanbul, head to Mado, a national chain that originated in the dondurma heartland and now serves up the classic Turkish treat in historic locations like Beyoğlu.
France’s frozen tribute to wartime loyalty
Despite its name, café liégeois has nothing to do with the Belgian city of Liège. Originally known as café viennois, France renamed the dessert during World War I to honour the people of Liège for resisting German occupation.
The drink-dessert hybrid features scoops of coffee-flavoured ice cream layered with chilled coffee and topped with a swirl of Chantilly cream – a fluffy, high-fat dairy cream often laced with vanilla. It’s a decadent and refreshingly bittersweet pick-me-up.
For a taste of the classic in a setting steeped in history, visit Café de la Paix. Located in what is now the Intercontinental hotel, the 19th-century institution overlooks the Palais Garnier opera house and is pure Parisian grandeur.
Lapland’s golden berry treat
Sweet, tart and impossible to cultivate commercially at scale, cloudberries are one of the Arctic’s most elusive treasures.
These golden-orange fruits, found in the wild marshes and bogs in Sweden, Norway and Finland, are foraged in late summer and have long been a staple of Indigenous Sami traditions. Their fleeting season and remote habitat make them a prized ingredient for everything from jam to liqueur. But the real indulgence is cloudberry ice cream.
In Finland’s north, the Arctic Ice Cream Factory swirls the berries into creamy scoops best enjoyed after a trek across the tundra or under the midnight sun.
Across the border in Sweden, the Brandon Lodge in coastal Luleå and the Grand-Hotel Stockholm have each created decadent scoops of the seasonal treat – the latter with the help of local ice cream makers Otto & Glassfabriken.