Nova Caffe

Ciao! Every week, I try a new gelato shop in Rome, throughout all the different neighborhoods. Each shop is evaluated by flavor, service and price. Each shop can be rated up to 30 points: 10 possible for each category. This week I decided to do Nova Café. For those of you living under a rock, the pope is retiring and soon conclave will start. Along with the newly elected pope come massive crowds of people. If you are one of the observers in St. Peter’s Square, I’ve scoped out the nearby gelato shops and Nova Caffe would be my recommendation. Nova Caffe is located on Via Della Conciliazione, 4G, Rome, Italy 

Flavor: The flavor and quality at Nova is top notch. It’s one of the better gelato shops I’ve eaten at. The after taste tells a lot about the quality of the flavor. For example, if you taste strawberry and the after taste is strawberry, then you can tell it was made with real strawberries and it’s a good quality. If you taste a bitter acidity taste afterwards then you can tell the gelato was artificially flavored and the quality isn’t as great. Nova has plenty of flavors to choose from and they’re all very velvety and smooth. Here’s a complete list of their flavors:

•          Mint chocolate chip
•          Bacio
•         Vanilla
•          Pistachio
•          Cheese  
•          Cookies and crème
•          Creme and chocolate
•          Baba
•          Caramel
•         Nutella
•          Lemon
•          Melon
•          Mango
•         Pineapple
•          Amerena
•          Raspberry
•         Kiwi
•          Strawberry
•         Mixed fruit
•          Banana
•          Coconut
•          Trifle
•         Yogurt
•          Cappuccino
•         Mixed fruit yogurt
•         Tiramisu
•          Cassata
•          Coffee
•          Creme
•          Hazelnut
•         Malaga
•          Chocolate

Flavor Score: 8

Service: When you walk into Nova Caffe there lots of seating and lots of nicely dresser employees. Don’t let this fool you, the service is terrible. If you order gelato, you can’t sit at the tables and eat it, you have to pay extra for that. If you like trying different flavors of gelato before choosing which flavor to order then you won’t like it here because they don’t allow that. The people working there aren’t very friendly either. They do however, offer much more than gelato so if you’re looking for someplace to eat or just grab a pasty, they have a large assortment and their menu comes in several different languages.

Service Score: 2

Price: Because the Nova Caffe is within 300 meters of St. Peter’s Square, you can expect the prices to be a little more expensive than your average gelato shop.

Cone prices:

·         Small, 1 flavor – 2.50

·         Medium, 2 flavors – 3.50

·         Large, 3 flavors – 5.00

Cup prices

·         Small, 1 flavor – 2.50

·         Medium, 2 flavors – 3.50

·         Large, 2 flavors – 4.50

·         Large, 3 flavors – 5.00

Price Score: 4

Overall Score: 14

Overall, Nova Caffe is not my favorite place but the quality of the flavor and the location make up for everything else. If you’re in the area for the papal festivities and you feel like some gelato, Nova Caffe is just a short walk away. Try the mint chocolate chip, it’s my favorite!