Well, I don't know if such divisions make sense in context of this discussion. In Italian, "gelato" refers generally to all ice-cream-consistency-frozen-desert

Well, I don't know if such divisions make sense in context of this discussion. In Italian, "gelato" refers generally to all ice-cream-consistency-frozen-desert-ish stuff, including for example sorbet (sorbetto). So my comparison was the whole US family versus the Italian family of frozen gelatinous ice-cream-like desert substances. Italy wins hands down, no contest.