Giolitti
The oldest gelateria in Rome, in the family since 1890, a few lanes from the Pantheon
Since 1890 • Say yes to the panna • Steps from the Pantheon
Explore → Get Early Access🏛️ Essential Visitor Information
🍨 The Oldest Gelateria in Rome
Giolitti began in 1890, when Giuseppe and Bernardina Giolitti opened a small dairy on Salita del Grillo whose milk soon reached the royal household. Their son Nazzareno moved the family business to Via degli Uffici del Vicario, added gelato to the counter, and the rest is the longest-running ice cream story in the city. The shop is still in the family, four generations on, and still churns to recipes worked out by the family decades ago. In a city obsessed with the old, this is the old guard of gelato.
🏛️ A Stone's Throw from Parliament
The shop sits around the corner from Palazzo Montecitorio, and the coppetta in the hand of a hurrying deputy is a small Roman tradition of its own. The guest book runs deeper than politics. The story goes that Gregory Peck had Giolitti gelato brought in while filming Roman Holiday, and when the Obama family came to Rome, it was Giolitti that scooped for the girls. None of that would matter if the gelato slipped, and it has not.
🍦 What to Order
The system trips up first-timers: pay at the till by the door, then carry your receipt to the marble counter and call your flavours. Our order never changes: the fico caramellato, a creamy caramelized fig we have never found better anywhere, next to a scoop of walnut. The crema and the pistachio are flawless benchmarks if you want the classics. Then comes the only rule we insist on. When they ask about whipped cream, say yes. The panna here is a flavour in its own right, piled in a soft cloud over the cup, and skipping it is the one mistake we made only once.
🚶 How to Do It
We have come back on every visit to Rome, in June, in September, in the thick of July, and the routine never changes. See the Pantheon, walk the three quiet blocks north, and join the crowd under the sign. The shop runs late into the evening, and the best hour is after dinner, when the terrace fills, the neon comes on, and half the neighbourhood turns up for the same thing you did. A cup in hand on the walk back through the lanes is Rome working exactly as intended.
The Shop
The sign appears over the lane a block from the Pantheon, and the terrace under it never seems to empty.
The Counter
A case running the length of the room, labelled in Italian and English, with the gelato worked in deep steel tubs.
The Cup
Four visits in, the order has settled: a coppetta, two flavours, and always the panna.
The Neon Hour
The sign switches to green neon after sunset and the queue barely shortens; gelato is an after-dinner ritual in Rome.
Live Prices & Availability
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🤫 Hidden Secrets
- Pay at the till before you approach the counter; walking straight up to the gelato is the classic first-timer mistake and the servers will send you back
- Ask for the panna on top even if you are unsure; the house whipped cream is half the reason Romans queue here
📸 Photographer's Notes
- Shoot the sign from up the lane in the late afternoon, when the low sun comes down Via degli Uffici del Vicario and warms the whole facade
- Take the cup back out to the cobbles for the photo; the daylight by the door is better than the dim marble interior, and the sign makes the backdrop
Frequently Asked Questions
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