Vecchitto Italian Ice is an unassuming place and probably very easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there.  The store is located deep within the jumble of bridges, on-ramps, and off-ramps that is the bottleneck of traffic known as Route 9 in Middletown, CT, but if you’re passing through you will not want to miss it.

The inside is pretty much bare-bones, just a counter full of very delicious, powerfully flavored Italian Ice.  This is my favorite, Almond.  The picture was taken beneath one of the red neon lights so the color is off.  The true color sans neon is a pale grey/tan, in other words, the most unnapetizing looking color in the world.  But the taste is wonderful, the almond flavor is striking in its intensity, but also very sweet, and very, very cold.  I love the little paper cups it comes in, too, as once you get to the bottom you can just squeeze the melting ice up to get the last bits.  Other flavors are consistently excellent.

This is the cherry flavor which was probably my least favorite but still very good.  The fruitiness just wasn’t as strong as the other ones we tried but it may have just been due to the other ones being so overwhelmingly strong.  In a good way.  We also tried the watermelon which was excellent, and my second favorite was probably the banana.  We passed up the traditional lemon this time around but if my memory is right the lemon is also very, very good, and much more intense than the usual watered-down stuff you typically find at the fairs and carts which are so popular in New England.

Vecchitto is by far my favorite place for Italian Ice in New England that I’ve tried so far.  Middletown, CT is a great town for good eating and Vecchitto makes for a sweet ending after a day in town or if you’re just passing through.