Florence · gelato
I Gelati del Bondi
A Tre Coni house whose maker names his own method as the reason most Italian gelato tastes the same — down to a personally owned vanilla plantation — and argues in the press against the assumption that a station-adjacent tourist street cannot hold a serious gelateria. He also repeats the Buontalenti legend uncritically as fact, which the record notes rather than launders.
What to order
Crema Fiorentina (Buontalenti), which Bondi calls 'the first gelato in the world,' or the Vaniglia made from his own Komodo-grown vanilla (FUL Magazine).
What we know
- Trading since 1982; states on its own site that it makes gelato without palm oil or mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (gelatidelbondi.com)
- Maker states that 85 percent of the gelato eaten in Italy is made from industrial premix, and describes refusing the 'white base plus flavouring' method in favour of cooking each flavour from raw ingredients individually (FUL Magazine, 12 June 2024)
- Signature vanilla comes from vanilla plants the maker himself owns on the island of Komodo, Indonesia, paid for through a consulting arrangement rather than bought on the open market, yielding roughly 300-400g a year (FUL Magazine)
- Pistachio bought raw from Bronte and roasted in-house rather than pre-processed (FUL Magazine)
- Holds Gambero Rosso's Tre Coni (gamberorossointernational.com, 22 Jan 2024; FUL Magazine)
- Founder publicly rejects the idea that his tourist-adjacent San Lorenzo/Via Nazionale location precludes quality, noting Florentine residents often only visit after reading about him elsewhere — he is a third-generation resident of the neighbourhood (FUL Magazine)
- Status
- open
- Address
- Via Nazionale, 61/R (angolo Via Faenza), 50123 Firenze
- Maker
- Vetulio Bondi, founder
- Opened
- 1982
- Website
- gelatidelbondi.com/
- Last checked
- 2026-08-21
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