Rome: Pizza & Gelato Cooking Class in City Center

4.99

(148 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The first thing I noticed was the smell — not just of flour and yeast, but that faint sweetness you get from someone making chocolate nearby. We were right in the middle of Rome, but inside the kitchen it felt like a little bubble. Our chef (her name was Paola) handed me an apron that was slightly too big and grinned when I fumbled with the knot. “Don’t worry,” she said, “everyone’s first pizza looks strange.” She wasn’t wrong. My dough was lumpy at first, but she showed me how to press it out with my knuckles — apparently that’s how Romans do it. The table was dusted with flour and everyone had their own pile. It got under my nails.

While our pizzas were rising (mine looked like a map of Sardinia), Paola started talking about gelato. She poured cream into a bowl and let us smell the vanilla — honestly, I never realized how different real vanilla smells compared to the stuff back home. There was this moment where we all just went quiet watching her swirl chocolate into the mix. A couple next to me tried to guess the secret ingredient; Paola just winked and kept stirring. The noise from outside drifted in every so often — scooters, someone shouting “andiamo!” — but mostly it was just us laughing about toppings or arguing over whether pineapple is ever allowed (Paola says no, very firmly).

Sitting down to eat what we’d made felt weirdly satisfying. My pizza wasn’t pretty but tasted way better than expected — maybe because I made it myself? The wine helped too (included in the class, which is nice), and for kids they brought out these little bottles of orange soda that fizzed up everywhere. Eating gelato after all that was almost too much, but somehow we managed. They gave us recipe booklets at the end; mine’s already covered in sauce stains because I tried recreating everything at home last week. Not quite the same without Paola’s jokes or that Roman afternoon light coming through the window.