Italian village tradition turns into global pasta experience

PALOMBARA SABINA, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital — What began as a simple idea to share homemade pasta lessons with tourists has grown into an international phenomenon connecting travelers with Italian grandmothers.

Eight years ago, Chiara Nicolanti posted a photo on social media inviting people to “cook with grandma.” She didn’t expect the response.

“Suddenly we have people walking in our streets in the middle of nowhere in Italy looking for the pasta grandma,” Nicolanti said. “It was my grandma. I asked her, ‘Do you mind if I let these people in?’ And she said, ‘Open the door.’”

The project, called Handmade Pasta with Grandma, started in Nicolanti’s home and quickly expanded as other women in the village joined. 

“All the grandmothers started to be part of this project,” she said. “It became like a community business.”

The experience offers more than a cooking class. Guests are welcomed with hugs and immersed in family traditions. 

“You have the hug. The end of personal space,” Nicolanti said with a laugh. She added that eating with a Nonna can be “dangerous” because “she will feed you until you explode.”

The program’s popularity led to television appearances and even international travel for some of the grandmothers, many of whom had never left their village before.

“We were asked to bring our format around the world,” Nicolanti said.

The project took on deeper meaning after Nicolanti’s grandmother passed away two years ago. 

“At the beginning, it was too painful for me,” she said. “Then, as the news spread, we received thousands of emails from people all over the world. They told me how this day with my grandma changed their life. I felt my community was not my village anymore. My community was the world.”

For Nicolanti, making pasta together is about more than food. 

“If a grandma gives you the possibility to touch her dough, that means they’re really creating a moment that will last forever,” she said. “Making pasta together means being part of a family.”

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics begin Feb. 6, but in Palombara Sabina, the tradition of pasta-making continues to bring people together year-round.