In a nutshell
- Cooking classes in Italy are about much more than following recipes: they combine food, local traditions, socializing, and hands-on experiences that immerse travelers in Italian culture.
- In Positano, La Tagliata turns a cooking lesson into a celebration, with garden-fresh ingredients, traditional dishes like gnocchi and tiramisu, wine, music, and dancing.
- Italian cooking classes are part of the growing “skillcation” trend, as travelers – especially Gen Z – look for vacations that allow them to return home with a new skill as well as memories.
- Rome offers farm-to-table experiences where participants shop for fresh ingredients before preparing dishes such as handmade pasta, meatballs, and tiramisu from scratch.
- Naples is the place to learn authentic Neapolitan pizza-making, with classes teaching everything from preparing and stretching the dough to baking pizza in a traditional wood-fired oven.
- No previous cooking experience is required: many Italian cooking classes are designed for complete beginners and focus on learning traditional family recipes in a relaxed, welcoming environment.
If you think learning to cook comes down to measuring ingredients, following recipes to a T, and taking copious notes on cooking techniques, you clearly have not taken La Tagliata restaurant’s cooking class in Positano, Italy. To be sure, this social media-famous course involves plenty of delicious dishes like eggplant parmesan, gnocchi and tiramisu; you’ll bask in the aroma of the food, you’ll definitely taste it, and you may even prepare some of it.
An Experience to Remember in Positano
But in this particular cooking class, in the cliffside village of Positano on the Amalfi Coast, you’re not just learning how to cook an Italian meal. You are learning to celebrate and savor it in true Italian fashion: with song, dance, good cheer and wine poured into oversized glasses filled to the brim. By the end of the evening, the joy is palpable and everyone is dancing.
Several content creators who took the class describe it on social media as the best part of their vacation.
“You begin the day in the garden. You pick all the fruits and vegetables that you’re going to be using in the recipe,” says Sophie Cranmer, who goes by the Instagram handle @myguidetotheworld. “You might not actually get much cooking done or remember half of the recipes, but boy, was it fun.”
The Rise of the Skillcation
Travelers to Italy have long been drawn to cooking classes on everything from pasta to gelato, but Gen Z’s growing appetite for immersive, experiential vacations has added fresh momentum to this trend. With “skillcations” on the rise, travelers are not only looking for new experiences but also for something that will stay with them long after the trip is over, such as a new skill. And learning to cook traditional Italian food remains at the top of the list.
No matter where you go in Italy, someone is probably offering a cooking class. From learning artisanal cheesemaking at the Italian Culinary Institute in Calabria to brushing up on the basics of Italian brunch at Mama Isa’s Cooking School in Venice, to cooking with seasonal ingredients at The Sicilian Pantry in Palermo, there is never a shortage of options for travelers eager to explore Italian cuisine.
Among these food-focused experiences that immerse travelers in Italy’s culinary heritage, WeRoad offers weekend trips to Bologna and Parma. A combination of architecture, art, culture and gastronomy, the trips promise “a journey through history, flavor and atmosphere.”
Pasta, Meatballs and Tiramisu in Rome
For content creator and model Kate Redecker, who took a cooking class with EnjoyCooking.com in Rome, the experience began at the farmer’s market, where she picked her own fresh vegetables before gathering the rest of the ingredients at the bakery, cheese shop and butcher shop. Next came the preparation of the meal. First, course participants made the tiramisu for dessert, then they prepared the vegetables, cooked the meatballs, and hand-rolled the pasta. Finally, they put everything together.
“I had never made pasta from scratch before so this was a treat, and seeing how everything came together at the end was just marvelous. I think knowing where the ingredients came from made the food taste so much better,” she says on Instagram. “After we ate the pasta and the main course, we finished the tiramisu. And oh my goodness, it was phenomenal.”
Pizza in Naples
If you’re going to take a pizza-making class, you may as well head to the place where it all began: Naples. Among a wide range of courses run by various cooking schools, the Verace Neapolitan Pizza Association offers a popular class called “Pizzamaker for One Day.” Under the watchful eye of their instructors, students prepare the dough, stretch it, cover it in sauce and bake it in a traditional wood-fired oven.
“I’ve been wanting to come learn how to make pizza the true Neapolitan way and this was it. These guys train restaurant owners in the authentic ways and this three-hour course was great for someone who’s more of an amateur,” one participant wrote in a Tripadvisor review. “Even with a decent amount of pizza making experience I still learned tips and tricks to make it even better.”
No Experience Necessary
Are you the kind of hopeless cook who can barely boil a pot of water? Worried that you will have trouble keeping up with other students in a cooking class? Have no fear, says the content creator Martina DeAngelis, who offers a variety of cooking classes inspired by traditional recipes her family has been making for decades at their home in Sorrento.
“I get this message every day: ‘Martina, I love your energy but I burn everything. Is your masterclass too difficult for me?’” she says on Instagram, where she goes by the handle @dea_incucina. “This academy is not a competition for a professional chef. It’s a kitchen that we started from zero, together.”
On her website, Martina talks about learning to cook on her family’s farm by watching her mother and grandmother, whose traditional techniques and culinary secrets she wants to share with her students. Among other immersive experiences, she offers private and group classes on how to make pasta and cheese, limoncello and dessert.
“Stop saying ‘I can’t,’” Martina says. “Start saying, ‘I’m learning.’”
