CIEE Rome Cultural Activities

By: Ari Au

CIEE Rome hosted many activities for us to learn more about Italy. The four activities I could go to were:

1. Pizza Making Class at Rossopomodoro 
2. Bike Tour in Villa Borghese
3. Pompeii and Paestum Study Tour
4. Gelato Making Demonstration & Tasting 

1. Pizza Making Class at Rossopomodoro 

This activity was delicious! We arrived at the Rossopomodoro restaurant where they had the ingredients prepared for us upstairs to make dough balls. Our instructors helped us make our dough balls then took us downstairs to continue with the pizza making process. After giving us pre-made dough balls, the instructors guided us in adding ingredients to our pizzas. They even shaped our pizzas into heart shapes before placing them in the wood-fired oven!

2. Bike Tour in Villa Borghese

We arrived in Villa Borghese expecting to follow a guide around the area, but lucky for us, we got our bikes and got to explore by ourselves! Villa Borghese was big and beautiful with kids playing soccer, people working out, friends and family hanging out on the grass and benches, and performers playing music. We had an hour to bike around, and we all had a great time with this activity; it made us feel like kids again. After our hour was up, we stayed in the area to enjoy the rest of the day. 

3. Pompeii and Paestum Study Tour

This overnight trip in Paestum was the best bonding experience for everyone. This weekend trip started with a tour of Pompeii. Following our tour, we had an hour to wander the city to eat and get some souvenirs. After that, we went to our hotel in Paestum where we hung out by the pool until dinner. We spent several hours hanging out at the pool and talking with people we didn’t share classes with. We all got closer on this overnight trip and were sad when the weekend was over. 

4. Gelato Making Demonstration & Tasting

This activity was the tastiest! We toured Fassi Gelateria where we got to see the behind the scenes of how they make their gelato. That morning, they were making banana gelato, which they told us actually shouldn’t be yellow, but a more greyish-white color. After we listened to the rich history of their establishment, we got to taste the rich flavor of their gelatos. We each got to choose three flavors and I chose: 

• Gianduia alla viterbese (which tasted like a combination of milk chocolate and hazelnut)
• Crema Fassi (which is honestly my favorite flavor to always get, it tastes like custard goodness)
• Pistacchio

EXPLORE ROME