Love & Gelato is a recently-released Netflix movie based on the YA novel by Jenna Evans Welch. The story follows high school graduate Lina (played by Susanna Skaggs) as she travels to Rome the summer after graduating to honor her mom's dying wish.
Blending the English and Italian language, Love & Gelato tells a heartwarming story of a young adult coming into her own. And while the story is cute, it's the characters that make the movie exceptional. From considerably handsome and kindhearted Italian boys to chaotic godmothers and long-distance best friends, Love & Gelato has a cast of characters viewers can't help but fall in love with.
Matteo Fossi
While most of the characters in Love & Gelato are kindhearted and good-intentioned, Matteo Fossi (Cristiano Piacenti) is not. In fact, he's definitely the villain in the movie playing the part of Lina's estranged father who seemingly wants nothing to do with her.
It's bad enough that Matteo was fooling around with Lina's mom while he was her college professor, but it's even worse that he didn't help her when she found she was pregnant. As the adult, Matteo should have known better. Lina gives him a chance to redeem himself when she pays him an unexpected visit but he doesn't even say two words to her making her a terrible father figure and a contender for one of the worst movie dads to date.
Alessandro
Alessandro (Michele Favaro) is the first person Lina's age she meets when she gets to Rome and she's instantly smitten with him. It's hard not to be thanks to the smooth and charming way Alessandro talks to her. He sweeps her off her feet, taking her sightseeing and pushing her out of her comfort zone when they jump off a cliff into the gorgeous waters before.
However, Alessandro isn't really the knight in shining armor he appears to be. In fact, he has a terrible habit of making girls feels special before promptly forgetting about them. Alessandro tries to convince Lina he's changed but he continues to make mistakes, forcing Lina to cut him off for good.
Hadley
Lina's mother Hadley is never shown on-screen since she has passed away when the movie begins, but she manages to be a main character through the diary entries she wrote about her time in Rome. Lina receives the diary from her godmother and immediately starts reading it, bringing a younger Hadley to life in her imagination.
It's through these diary entries that Lina and the audience understand who Hadley was as a character. While she's not perfect and definitely made a mistake by keeping Lina's father's identity a secret from her; there's no denying that she was a devoted mother who loved Lina from the moment she learned she was going to be a mother.
Lorenzo
Like all good teen movies, Love & Gelato has a pretty great love triangle going on thanks to the inclusion of Lorenzo (Tobia De Angelis). Not only does he flirtatiously cross paths with Lina but he also has a feud with Alessandro setting up the best love triangle for the rest of the movie. However, Lorenzo is more than just a pawn in a love triangle (that ends in a satisfying way) and actually turns out to be one of the best characters Lina meets.
Though he does keep the fact that he has a girlfriend a secret from Lina, fans are able to forgive Lorenzo because he puts his friendship with Lina above everything else. He even sacrifices his chance at attending a famous culinary school to make sure she's okay when she decides to visit her father.
Francesca
Francesca (Valentina Lodovini) is the best godmother and she doesn't even need magic powers to be one. Lina's mom met Francesca when she spent the summer in Rome as a young adult and the two were best friends ever since. Now that Hadley's gone, Francesca has been tasked with the job of making sure Lina enjoys and embraces her time in Rome.
Like all godmothers, Francesca is there to nudge Lina out of her comfort zone, and there to lend a shoulder to cry on when things don't go as they expect. She acts as a maternal figure to Lina throughout the movie, which could make her a great adoptive mother figure.
Addie
When it comes to best friends, Addie (Anjelika Washington) is certainly one of the best. Unlike some young girls who would be jealous that their best friend is going to Rome for the summer without them, Addie is the one actively convincing Lina to go and have fun.
She's as supportive as she can be from thousands of miles apart, regularly checking in on Lina over FaceTime to encourage her to be young, live in the moment, and follow her heart. However, Addie really shines not just as a good friend but as a great character when she shows up in Rome to cheer Lina up after her visit with her father doesn't go well.
Lina
As the main character of Love & Gelato, Lina (Skaggs) is definitely likable. It's hard not to love her given she has a sweet and awkward disposition. Though she can be a bit frustrating at times, like when she's moping around instead of enjoying Rome, fans can't help but get enough of her.
One of the reasons she's such a great main character in a teen movie though is because she's a girl who knows her worth. Instead of moping around when she finds out about Alessandro, she leaps into action to confront him. That fire in her pushes her forward, reminding her to never compromise her wants for someone else. Fans also love that the movie version of Lina is very close to the book version of herself, proving that Love & Gelato is one of the best young adult novels to be turned into a movie recently.
Howard
Howard (Owen McDonell) can be considered the best character in Love & Gelato. Since he's Francesca's cousin, he's one of the first people to welcome Lina to Rome and he does so with open arms.
While he does let Lina think he's her father for a moment, he only does so because he doesn't want to tell her anything Hadley wouldn't want him knowing. Once they get through that hurdle, Howard undeniably stands by Lina's side for the rest of the movie. He really shines throughout as the best character though for his scene at the end of the movie when he tells Lina that if she's looking for a father figure in her life, he'd be thrilled to be that for her.