We explore farther afield in Vancouver, and try Bella Gelateria

Last weekend we went up to Vancouver to visit an old friend of Forrest's. We had an amazing weekend- Vancouver is an absolutely stunning city, and we were lucky to be there for a weekend of perfect weather and the Vancouver International Film Festival. We had a jam-packed weekend of viewing films, biking, exploring some of the fun neighborhoods and going to a really fantastic dance performance. I really can't recommend Vancouver enough- it's a great cosmopolitan city, with lots of culture and art, and is completely beautiful, with mountains rising up from right next to the city. And while we were there, we got to try Bella Gelateria, which was just down the street from our hostess's house, and has also been named one of the best gelaterias in the world (literally, there is a gelato festival in Florence where there is an international competition- and Bella Gelateria won the competition).

We went on a beautiful evening- the location we visited in Yaletown is a combination pizzeria and gelateria; we proceeded directly to the gelato, which we sampled from an incredibly long list of flavors (if you look closely in the picture, you can see the list of flavors behind us). There were lots of options to appeal to any palette; fruit, nuts, chocolate and everything in between. Forrest chose lemon ricotta and amarena cherry and I had toasted pecan with Maldon sea salt and salted hazelnut. All four flavors were awesome! The lemon ricotta was bright and lemony, while the amarena cherry was light and refreshing. I loved the salted hazelnut; both the salt and the hazelnut were subtle, but worked together well. The salted hazelnut also had a really nice texture, with fine pieces of hazelnut that added complexity to the creaminess of the gelato. The toasted pecan was also exceptionally good, with pieces of pecans, which had a nice, soft bite, again adding an appealing textural component to the gelato.

Since we were out of town, we won't put Bella Gelateria up against the Seattle establishments for a numerical score- but it was completely delicious and highly recommended in the event you find yourself spending time in Vancouver!