Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Place strawberries, water mixture and buttermilk into a blender and process until smooth.
Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions.
Notes
If you want it less sweet, use less sugar in the simple syrup, but keep the same amount of water. Add some mini chocolate chips when the gelato is almost ready to come out of the ice cream maker to make a chocolate chip strawberry gelato!