20 Classic Desserts You'll Find In Italy

There are so many reasons to plan a trip to Italy, including Renaissance art, grand architecture, and romantic cities, but food will always be at the top of the list. From pizza in Italy tasting so good to excellent pasta and wine, this country is the home of some of the world's most-beloved dishes. After a lengthy, multi-course feast typical to Italian dining, starting with some delicious Italian cocktails and antipasti snacks (which are different from charcuterie!) and working your way through pasta, meat, and cheese courses, you arrive at the grand finale: dessert.

Italian desserts are just as showstopping as its other dishes, showcasing the country's bountiful ingredients, regional cuisine variations, and culinary influences from the Greeks, Romans, and Arabs. You're likely familiar with some famous Italian desserts and dessert customs, like pouring espresso over gelato for an affogato, but they only scratch the surface of Italy's sweet treats. As you travel around this Bel Paese, keep an eye out for these classic desserts for a "la dolce treat-a" end to your meals.

Meaning "pick me up" or "cheer me up" in Italian, tiramisu is one of Italy's most-famous desserts. Said to be based on sbatudin, a common treat among the working class in the city of Treviso, tiramisu as it's known today first appeared in the late 1960s to early 1970s. While there are many stories about its exact origins, with the neighboring regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in northern Italy both laying claim to it, what is known is that tiramisu has risen to the top pantheon of Italian desserts.

Distinct from the opera cake, tiramisu's French culinary twin, this no-bake dessert consists of espresso-soaked ladyfingers layered between rich, creamy layers of custard made with egg yolks, mascarpone, and sugar and dusted with cocoa powder. While the recipe has different variations — we're big fans of our creamy hazelnut tiramisu recipe — one of the most-popular is dipping ladyfingers in alcohol like dark rum or Marsala wine.

Featuring the colors of the Italian flag — green, white, and red — these colorful treats are known by many names: Venetian cookies, seven-layer cookies, Neapolitan cookies, tricolor cookies, and Italian flag cookies. Whatever you call them, they're a quintessential part of Italian and Italian-American cuisine, having been invented in the United States in the late 1800s by immigrant communities but said to be inspired by desserts like pasticcini arcobaleno from the homeland..

Often likened more to a cake than a cookie, Italian rainbow cookies are made with three layers of almond-based sponge cake that are divided by layers of apricot or raspberry jam and topped with a chocolate coating. This is one of the reasons it's often called a seven-layer cookie, as it has seven layers of cake and filling. Baked in a large sheet pan, they're sliced into little slivers or squares for serving.

Hailing from the island of Sicily in southern Italy, cannoli (the plural term for cannolo) are pastries made by filling a hollow tube of fried pastry dough with a rich cream made from ricotta cheese. Ranging in size from 3.5 to 8 inches, they're served at room temperature and often dusted with powdered sugar, with various sweet treats like chocolate chips, chopped pistachios, or fruit being added to the filling on each side.

The history of cannoli goes way back, said to have first been invented in the Middle Ages at the time of Arab rule. In the 11th century, when Sicily was converted to Catholicism, convents and monasteries became the gatekeepers of the cannoli, preserving the recipes and making them for religious events and special occasions. Today, cannoli are widespread across Sicily, Italy, and the world, and have many flavor and ingredient variations.

If you're a fan of filled donuts, bomboloni are the Italian desserts for you. Eaten for breakfast alongside a cappuccino, as a snack, or for dessert, this pillowy pastry features a light, airy dough with a sweet filling like cream, jam, or chocolate. Achieving its cloud-like texture through a lengthy rising process, the rounded, circular-like cuts of dough are then fried, coated in sugar, and injected with the filling.

Taking its name from the Italian word for "bomb," bomboloni (with the singular term being bomboline) come from both Tuscany in central Italy and northern Italian regions like Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. As these Alps-abutting regions were once Austrian, the bomboline draws inspiration from the Berliner (also known as the krapfen), a jelly-filled donut from Germany and Austria.

The bomboline isn't Italy's only noteworthy donut. There are also zeppole (or singular zeppola): deep-fried dough fritters dusted with powdered sugar. Depending on where you are in the country, they come in different forms and shapes, from tiny balls to pastry-cream-filled zeppole di San Giuseppe to coiled-up rings to funnel-cake-style mounds of fried dough.

Commonly found in cuisines across central and southern Italy, it's believed that zeppole originated in ancient Rome as deep-fried fritters powdered with cinnamon or sugar before evolving into its current incarnation in the 19th century. They're typically eaten in March in celebration of Saint Joseph's Day. In Sardinia, they're eaten during Carnival festivities. No matter which rendition you're enjoying, they're all delicious and showcase the diversity of Italian dishes across the country. In Malta, which was once part of Italy, you can even try a savory version made with anchovies.

In gelaterias all across Italy, you can nearly always find a frozen treat that's one of the country's best-known desserts around the world: gelato. Meaning "frozen" in Italian, gelato is similar to ice cream but with a denser and smoother texture due to using more milk (and less cream) and churning it at a slower rate.

Served in coppas (cups) or cones (cono), gelato comes in a wide range of flavors, from chocolate to pistachio and vanilla. Italians typically eat gelato during the afternoon or as an on-the-go treat after dinner. It doesn't get more Italian than strolling through the streets of a city with a cup or cone of gelato in hand. Aside from being enjoyed on its own as scoops, gelato is also used to make other Italian desserts like spumoni, which is a layered, molded gelato featuring pistachio, cherry, and chocolate flavors.

If you can't get enough Italian gelato during your visit, you can branch out from scoops to gelato-made desserts like tartufo. Originating in the town of Pizzo in Calabria, a region in southern Italy forming the toe of the country's "boot," tartufo is made by melding two or more flavors of gelato together into a ball, with an extra treat like chocolate or frozen fruit hiding at its center. If using fruit, a cherry, raspberry, or strawberry are the most common. The entire creation is then covered with a chocolate or cocoa shell, adding a crackly, hard texture to the smooth, creamy gelato.

Meaning "truffle" in Italian, this frozen dessert gets its name thanks to its resemblance to Italy's renowned truffles. The tartufo is such an icon of its hometown that it was granted "Protected Geographical Indication" status by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies.

Typically served in stemmed glassware like champagne coupes, this northern Italian dessert is as popular for its fun presentation as it is for its rich, sweet flavors. Believed to hail from the Piedmont region, zabaglione is a custardy dessert made with egg yolks, sugar, and a sweet wine like Marsala fortified wine. Its light, delicate texture is achieved through vigorous whipping to incorporate lots of air. It's then served in a glass with toppings like fruit or ladyfingers or alongside cake.

As for how zabaglione came to be, there are many theories and stories. One story goes that it was created in the 16th century in Turin, while another says it was invented by an army captain using looted ingredients. The first official record of the recipe dates from a cookbook by Venetian chef Bartolomeo Stefani in 1662.

Italy's northerly Piedmont region is one of the country's biggest milk producers, making rich, high-quality dairy for regional cheeses like Gorgonzola. So, it stands to reason that one of Piedmont's most-famous desserts would be a cooked, custard-like pudding made with sweetened cream: panna cotta. The name even means "cooked cream" in Italian. While official recipes first started appearing in Italian cookbooks during the 1960s, it's known as a traditional regional dessert dating much further back.

Panna cotta is a smooth, luscious mixture of cream and sugar with optional flavorings like vanilla that's mixed with gelatin to achieve the dish's signature bouncy, jingly texture. It's made by creating the mixture and then pouring it into molds — sometimes prepared with caramel bottoms for extra flavor — to set and cool before plating. Once set, it's served with garnishes like fruit, sweet sauces, or coulis.

If there are two things Italians make well, it's coffee and gelato. Bring the two together, and it's a match made in heaven. Per its name, which means "drowned" in Italian, the affogato traditionally consists of a scoop of plain or vanilla gelato that's "drowned" in hot espresso. Some variations boost the flavor with boozy shots of amaretto or Kahlua, which add notes of nuttiness to the creamy gelato and bitter espresso.

Said to have been first invented by a 17th-century friar, the affogato only truly started to gain fame and renown during the 1950s. This was partially due to gelato and ice cream becoming more widely available thanks to modernization. In the proper Italian tradition, you eat the gelato first before sipping the espresso-with-melted-gelato mixture.

Grown in regions across central and southern Italy, lemons are a quintessential part of many classic Italian dishes and beverages, from limoncello to spaghetti al limone. So, naturally, it's also found its way onto the dessert menu with torta della nonna. Affectionately known as "grandmother's tart," this lemony, custardy dessert is said to come from Tuscany's Arezzo region, where it's traditionally the last course at Sunday lunch.

Made with local ingredients like Tuscan lemons and pine nuts, this pie-like tart features a vanilla custard filling and a buttery pastry crust flavored with fresh lemon zest. The custard filling also turns a bright, sunshine yellow after baking, befitting the lemon flavoring. A dusting of powdered sugar and a sprinkling of pine nuts finishes off the presentation before serving.

If you find yourself getting peckish while in Naples or regions like Umbria and Liguria, you can pop into a pasticceria (pastry shop) and grab some of these local delicacies. A popular dessert throughout southern Italy and on Sicily, pinolate (also known as pignoli) are small cookies made with almond paste and pine nuts. Chewy with a wonderfully nutty flavor, they're commonly found during the holidays and at Christmas.

The baked base is a mixture of almond paste, sugar, and egg whites, and some recipes even call for almond extract for enhanced flavoring. After mixing to create a dough, you then form small balls and roll them around in a bowl of pine nuts until they're completely coated and ready to be baked.

From chocolate chip to gingerbread to alfajores, cookies are always a crowd-pleaser come dessert time. Italy has tons of different cookie varieties worth trying, like rainbow cookies, but one cookie holds an especially important place in the country's heart due to its long history and rich traditions. Believed to date from ancient Roman times and originate in Abruzzo in what is now central Italy, the pizzelle is thought to be one of the first examples of a cookie in the world.

Made with eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and some sort of flavoring, like anise or vanilla, the most-distinct feature of a pizzelle is its appearance. A flat, wafer-like cookie, it gets its signature lacy look by using a special pizzelle iron, which squashes the cookie to its thin consistency and embeds it with an ornate pattern. You'll especially find these "little pizzas" (the word's direction translation) available around the holiday season.

Do you like croquembouche, one of France's most famous desserts? If so, you'll love this classic Neapolitan dessert that similarly features a large heap of doughy balls drizzled with a sugary syrup and adorned with toppings. A popular treat around the holidays, this dessert from southern Italy is said to have been brought to the area by the Greeks and gets its name from the Greek word "strongoulos," which means "round."

To make struffoli, tiny balls of dough are deep-fried until crunchy on the exterior but soft and doughy inside. They're arranged in the shape of a wreath and drizzled with honey to help them stick together. The final touch is a sprinkling of colorful nonpareils, but some regions use candied fruits instead.

Nothing says "Christmas in Italy" quite like panettone. As the holiday season rolls around, this classic fruitcake starts appearing in groceries, bakeries, and sweets shops all across the country. You may have even seen it in supermarkets outside of Italy in the lead-up to Christmas, as it's one of Italy's most-traditional holiday treats.

This cupola-shaped cake originally comes from the city of Milan in northern Italy's Lombardy region and is said to date as far back as the 1400s. Making this cake is a labor of love, as it takes several days to proof to achieve its light, soft texture. The sweet loaf is filled with dried and candied fruits like raisins, cranberries, and cherries and wrapped in lovely, patterned wrapping paper for a pretty presentation.

After a full day of hiking to ancient temples or relaxing at the beach on the Mediterranean island of Sicily, nothing hits the spot quite like a meal of classic Sicilian dishes like pasta alla Norma paired with island-grown wine. To finish off the meal, order a slice of a traditional Sicilian confection known as cassata, which was invented in Palermo back in the 10th century.

A delight to look at as well as to eat, cassata is a liqueur or fruit juice-sweetened sponge cake that's filled with ricotta and candied fruit. The entire ensemble is covered in a marzipan shell and ornately decorated with icing and fruit toppings. Between the marzipan, sugary sponge cake, icing, and candied fruits, this is definitely a dessert for those with a sweet tooth.

Along with panna cotta, one of the most-popular and beloved desserts from the northern Piedmont region is a similarly custardy creation called bonet. Usually served during the cold winter months, this creamy, pudding-like dessert is a rich indulgence for chocolate lovers. Named after the Piedmont word for "hat," it's believed to have gotten its name from its traditional copper serving molds, which resembled chef's hats.

It's also surprisingly easy to make, requiring only a handful of ingredients. Eggs, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder are mixed together with some rum and crumbled amaretti cookies and poured into a caramel-coated mold. After being baked and removed from the mold, the bonet is topped with whole amaretti cookies before being served. Presented as a long, rectangular log, precise slices are cut for serving.

No collection of Italian Christmas desserts is complete without torrone. A white nougat confection made with egg whites, sugar, honey, almonds, and nuts, there are regional variations of this candy across Italy, as well as throughout the Mediterranean region in Spain and Malta. Some historians argue that it was invented by the Romans, while others say it arose after the fall of the Roman empire during Arab rule. Both groups were big traders, explaining the dessert's widespread popularity.

Torrone is instantly recognizable thanks to its white nougat exterior, with its center abstractly studded with fruits and nuts. Depending on where you are in Italy, you'll find different types of torrone with different ingredients. In Sardinia, torrone is made without sugar and only uses honey, egg whites, and nuts like walnuts and hazelnuts, while torrone from Abruzzo contains candied fruit.

Another classic Italian cookie, florentines have a fascinating history. It's believed they were actually invented in France, with two different stories detailing their creation. One theory says that it was invented in the 15th century by a former pastry chef to the Medici family, who went to France to work in the household of Louis XII. Another theory says that they weren't invented until the 16th century, when members of the Medici family went to Versailles as guests of King Louis XIV.

Either way, the cookie has close ties to Florence, the former seat of power for the Medici family, and is now a Tuscan dessert staple, especially around the holidays. Thin and delicate, they're made with a sweet, honied mixture of nuts, candied fruits, sugar, and butter before being cut into circles, baked, and coated with chocolate on one side.

Another classic confection for the Italian Christmas table, pandoro is often considered the sister cake to panettone. A tall, sweet cake shaped like a star and dusted with powdered sugar, it was invented by a Veronese baker named Domenico Melegatti and patented in 1884. However, its origins may extend further back into the Middle Ages when royalty and nobility ate sweetened bread known as "pan de oro," or golden bread.

Similar in appearance to the panettone, the pandoro is a tall loaf of sweet bread with ridged sides that form the shape of a star. Unlike panettone, however, the inside is only dough, with no added fruits. Some theories say that the dusting of powdered sugar on top is meant to look like the snowcapped peaks of the Alps, a notable landmark across the dessert's home region in northern Italy.

Now, check out our cheat sheet guide to Italian restaurant courses, from antipasti to dolce.