The Made in Italy ice cream tradition has a long history. For generations, Fassi ice cream has been a must in Rome for Romans and foreigners. Tourist guides from halfway around the world recommend a stop at the Palazzo del Freddo to taste the legendary ‘Sanpietrini’, chocolate-frosted parfaits that have become a classic in the Capital.
A matter of moustache
The entrepreneurial history of Gelateria Fassi began back in 1880 when the founder, Giacomo Fassi, left Turin in search of fortune. Four years later, he and his wife Giuseppina opened a small ice and beer shop in Rome while experimenting with the production of sorbets, which were at the time the only existing form of ice cream.
Giovanni, the eldest son of the family, was born in 1880. In 1900, when Vittorio Emanuele III became king, he became an apprentice pastry and ice cream maker at the royal household.
In 1903, however, a year after the death of his father Giacomo, an ordinance was issued prohibiting kitchen staff from having beards or moustaches for hygiene reasons. At that point, Giovanni, who had always been proud of his moustache, chose to quit his job and return to the shop with his mother and brother, Salvatore.
Ice cream for everyone
With the spread of electricity, the Fassi family became equipped with the first electric refrigerating machines imported from Germany. Ice cream became an increasingly popular food, and the business gradually abandoned the sale of ice and beer in favour of the latter. In 1924, Giovanni bought the current premises in the Esquilino district, and after a three-year renovation, the Palazzo del Freddo was inaugurated in 1928, a 700-square-metre headquarters with an open laboratory.
Research and passion led Giovanni to use dry ice to preserve ice cream. He thus patented the Tele-Gelato Giuseppina (dedicated to his wife), the first ice cream in the world that could be stored for days and shipped all over Europe. The ice cream parlour became fashionable and frequented by illustrious people such as D’Annunzio and Trilussa.
The value of craftsmanship
Towards the end of World War II, the Palazzo del Freddo was requisitioned by American troops, who began to produce ice cream using the industrial method. When the Americans left the Palazzo del Freddo in 1946, Giovanni sold the machines for industrial production to a former employee because he wanted to preserve the craftsmanship of his ice cream.
Attention to social issues
Today, the Fassi family is in its fifth generation, with Andrea Fassi at the company’s helm. In addition to having transformed the Gelateria into a worldwide brand that supplies ice cream to 80 branches in the USA, Shanghai and Korea, Andrea has chosen to dedicate part of his time to the inmates of Rebibbia who attend the work orientation project organised by Unindustria, with the aim of training them for a job that they will be able to work in once they have served their sentences.
Congratulations to businesspeople who, like Andrea Fassi, put their commitment and heart into it!
Learn about other outstanding made in Italy products from Lazio.