Pasta & Tiramisu Cooking Class near the Spanish Steps Rome

The Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna

The Spanish Steps were built between 1723 and 1725 to link Piazza di Spagna with the church of Trinità dei Monti on the Pincian Hill. The wide travertine staircase curves and divides in elegant flights, and in spring it is often decorated with azaleas. At its foot the Barcaccia, a fountain shaped like a half-sunken boat, recalls the Tiber floods that once reached this square.

Sitting on the steps is now forbidden to protect them, but walking up to the terrace of Trinità dei Monti rewards you with a wide view over the rooftops to St Peter's dome. The best time to visit the Spanish Steps is early morning, before the crowds. For how to get to the Spanish Steps, take Metro Line A to Spagna, which exits right beside the square.

The restaurant and its painted rooms

The class takes place in a restaurant a few steps from the square, inside a building that dates from the 1600s. The cooking room keeps its original nineteenth-century wall paintings, so you knead your pasta surrounded by a piece of old Roman decoration rather than in a plain kitchen.

The room is air-conditioned, a real comfort after a summer day of sightseeing, and the work tables are set up for small groups. Your instructor speaks English and explains not only the techniques but also the stories behind the dishes, from the origins of fresh egg pasta to the regional rivalries over tiramisu. Arrive fifteen minutes early, ask the staff for the cooking class room, and settle in before the start.

Fettuccine made by hand

The pasta part begins with the simplest ingredients: flour and egg. You build a small well, break the egg into it and slowly bring everything together with a fork and then your fingers. Kneading takes patience, and your instructor shows you how to feel when the dough is smooth and elastic.

You then roll the dough with a pin until it is thin enough to see light through, fold it and cut your fettuccine by hand. Pasta is cooked together by the kitchen, divided by sauce: tomato and basil, the fresh basil pesto of Liguria, or Alfredo, a rich butter and Parmesan sauce first made in a Roman trattoria. Vegetarians are well served by all three. This is the part of the tiramisu and pasta class that most guests photograph.

Tiramisu, layer by layer

While the pasta rests, you move on to dessert. The mascarpone cream is prepared together as a group, whisking eggs and sugar until pale and folding in the mascarpone, and then each guest builds an individual tiramisu: ladyfingers dipped in coffee, layers of cream and a final dusting of cocoa.

Your instructor explains how the dessert was born in northeastern Italy and why the ladyfingers must be dipped only for a second. It sets while you eat your pasta and arrives at the table as the sweet finale of the meal, with water throughout and a soft drink. The written recipes and your certificate mean you can repeat this tiramisu class at your own table after the trip.

Around the Spanish Steps after class

The streets around the Spanish Steps are among the most elegant in Rome. Via dei Condotti, lined with fashion boutiques, runs straight from the foot of the steps, and Via Margutta, the artists' street, is a few minutes north.

The Trevi Fountain is about ten minutes on foot, and from the top of the steps a short walk leads to the Pincio terrace and the Villa Borghese park, perfect at sunset. If you book the 17:30 or 19:45 class, you finish as the shops close and the square fills with evening strollers; a morning class leaves the rest of the day free for sightseeing. Taxis wait at Piazza di Spagna for the ride back to your hotel.