Italian Cheese and Wine Tasting in Rome

We had the honor of experiencing four incredible adventures with the Local Aromas family, which elevated our entire Rome vacation. We began with the Four Pasta Tasting, led by Valeria, and it felt like we were with family. We learned about pasta, enjoyed it, and shared laughs about various topics. Then, on another day, we took the Roman street food tour with Benny, which was another incredible experience, walking through neighborhoods away from tourist areas and seeing beautiful architecture as we savored delicious food. Benny and Valeria have a passion for sharing their culture with others, which creates an extraordinary experience. A couple of days later, we participated in a Pasta Cooking class with Carla, who again blew us away with her humor and warm welcome into her home. The pasta turned out amazing, and not a drop was left on our plates. A couple of days later, we attended a cheese and wine tasting, which gave us a newfound appreciation for the art and chemistry of cheese and wine. Thank you to the entire Local Aromas family! We will be back, and we will book more! For anyone reading this review, I highly recommend booking one or more of their tours, as it will enhance your Roman vacation.

The meeting of Benny was awesome. It was a great surprise from my wife. And to have Benny as our host for the wine and cheese tasting was phenomenal. The way everything was introduced and what makes one cheese and what wine different from the others was phenomenal. I highly recommend her and her sister and the company and the restaurant that we attended for this. The food was outstanding. The service was exceptional, bon appétit

Last night we did a Wine, Cheese & Cold cut tasting experience with Benny! She and I corresponded for a couple of months, leading up to our visit, planning this as a surprise for my Italian born husband. The experience far exceeded my expectations!!! We had an amazing 3 hours with Benny….it was an unforgettable experience!! HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

This was more than an experience, it was a meeting of friends where Benny shared all his knowledge about wonderful Italian cheeses and wines. We really enjoyed it from start to finish. Everything was perfectly cared for, thought out and arranged to make it an unforgettable moment. I highly recommend it. Thank you very much!

We did a wine and cheese tasting with Benny. It was a wonderful experience from start to finish. Benny is super knowledgeable and made the experience amazing. We would highly recommend if you are ever in Rome to meet this wonderful lady.

I really enjoyed both the Wine and Cheese Tasting experience with Benedetta and the Four Roman Pasta Tasting with Eric. Both guides were very knowledgeable about the wine and food elements of the experiences and they took great care to ensure there wasn’t any duplication of wines so that I got the broadest possible experience. I gained a great deal of knowledge about wine varieties local to the area and enjoyed some very tasty and authentic Roman food to complement the wine. They were very generous with their time and we had some great conversations over the course of both evenings about food, wine and life in Rome. Thank you so much!

During our final evening in Italy, just 2 weeks after our first four Local Aromas (LA) experiences (see our other review, “Five Stars for Each of our Local Aromas Experiences“), we were super excited to enjoy our fifth LA experience (this time a private tour) with very chic and friendly LA co-owner, Benedetta. An incredibly talented wine sommelier, olive oil sommelier and professional cheese taster, Benny really knows how to share her vast knowledge and appreciation of wines and cheeses while mixing it with her flair for an engaging and sophisticated, totally fun evening of learning and conversation. Visiting the highly respected Beppe’s, we had the most delicious sensory experience tasting raw milk cheeses paired with wines. Benny showed us how to examine each cheese visually, to notice the feel of the cheese as we broke open each slice, to inhale and smell the specific aromas like grassiness and herbs, and finally to place each piece thoughtfully into our mouths to taste the fresh, deliciousness as it delighted our taste buds. Pure heaven, especially with the proper wine pairings provided! Watch their website video to see more of what you'll experience when you book this tour. As Valeria says, “it’s a five senses experience.” Note: You'll be very fortunate indeed to be hosted by any of the LA staff for their classes and tours. We also had tours led by Eleanora, Erik, Francesca and Juliette. Each guide is extremely knowledgeable about regional foods, wines and beers and infuse their interesting tours with local history and fun facts.

My husband is a cheese-lover and a far more adventurous cheese-eater than I am. When I saw this tasting experience I was thinking he would really enjoy it and I would learn perhaps a thing or two. This wine and cheese tasting actually changed me for the better. I would even go so far as to say that I am a better cheese-tasting human now after this experience. This is all thanks to Benny, our very knowledgable guide on what was a fantastic wine and cheese voyage! Benny was already waiting for us at the venue when we got there. We walked in and the cheese lessons began immediately. She told us all about the cheese-maker and his family business and walked us a bit through the cheese cases, asking us to keep a few things in mind for later. Once seated Benny walked us progressively through 9 wonderful Italian cheeses from the mild to the bold in 3 distinct stages. We had cheeses made from cow, sheep and goat milk. She made sure that each stage was of accompanied by a lovely wine pairing specifically from Italy which brought everything nicely full-circle. She explained to us the various facets of the cheese-making process, and how they produced different cheese characteristics (smell, texture, taste, etc.). Here is also where those details from the cheese cases in the shop came into play. They were little things I had noticed about cheese before, but never knew where they came from until Benny explained their origins. Throughout the tasting Benny instructed us to break and smell the cheese before tasting it, as you can get to a deeper flavor by exposing the inside of the cheese to the air, which, sadly, is something I had never thought to do before. She also invited us to taste a cheese with the previous wine pairing to make a comparison between the two, also an eye-opening experience for this wine & cheese pairing newbie. As someone who had mindlessly enjoyed cheese in the past, the whole process of smelling and breaking helped me enjoy what I was eating more fully and really appreciate all the work that goes into producing cheese (really, it's a lot. I never knew!) For those of you out there who might have doubts about spending time and money tasting a couple stronger cheeses, I would advise you to lay those doubts and stinky-cheese fears aside and take the plunge. I had been previously scarred by past bad stinky cheeses before this tasting and now I realize that all those stinky cheeses of the past were either of poor quality or poorly paired. From now on I will boldly go forth to taste those stronger cheeses in all their blue and green-flecked glory! So as you can tell my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our tasting experience. Benny was a real joy to meet and learn from. I also found it a nice touch at the end of the tasting that the company offers you contact information in case you have any questions during the duration of your stay. It was a very nice gesture that they truly want people to enjoy their time in Rome. I would definitely book another tasting experience with them in the future. Thank you, Benny!