Submitted by Samantha Green on the 2019 summer session program in Italy sponsored by the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition…
This week, I got to see up close the passion people in Italy have for preparing, cooking and serving their foods. Italy is not only known for pizza, pasta and gelato, but for other foods such as beignets, suppli, pizza bianca porchetta, cheese, prosciutto and trapizzino. Italians love tradition more than anything. Therefore, keeping family businesses around holds a special place in Italian hearts. This food tour allowed me to reach outside of my comfort zone and try new foods. If it wasn’t for this food tour, I would have never experienced the tasting of these traditional Roman foods. Our tour consisted of stopping at six family owned businesses which included tastings of pastries, different kinds of cheese and meats, fruit, and other traditional Italian foods. The owners of every place we walked into were all so welcoming. They were so happy to see young students learning and engaging in something that Italians have a very strong passion for. The owners of the bakery, café and restaurants even told us that they really appreciate when people really try to understand the history and making of Roman foods. This really made me think about how different Italy is compared to the United States in regards to food. In the United States, we have so many chain restaurants and few family owned businesses compared to Italy. It was so cool to experience the pride Italians have for their cuisine and I loved having the opportunity to try some new foods. The charming little district in Rome called Trastevere was the perfect place for this!
