The Fassi business was started in 1880 by the founder and founder-in-law Giacomo, who was born in Turin. Giacomo, looking for an entrepreneurial opportunity, took the southern route to discover Italy and in Palermo he met Giuseppina, who was to become his wife and play a leading role in the family's success. In 1875, Giacomo and Giuseppina arrived in Rome and in 1880 opened a small shop in Via IV Novembre. By intuition and luck, they guessed the place, the time and the business choice. The Fassi family business started with the sale of ice and beer, a winning combination at the time, and in the meantime they experimented with sorbets.
In 1880, Giovanni Fassi, the main member of the family and its business, was born. Even as a boy, Giovanni helped his parents in the shop and became acquainted with the royal kitchen staff at the Quirinale. In 1900, when Vittorio Emanuele III became king, Giovanni became an apprentice confectioner and ice-cream maker at the royal household, immediately gaining fame as the sovereign ice-cream maker. At that time there was no ice cream as we understand it today, but there was sorbet, which was called more gelato. The frozen sorbet was a product reserved only for the palates of the aristocracy. Ice compounds cooled with potassium were processed and mixed with raw materials in copper sorbet makers. Ice cream originated from nevere, i.e. fresh snow that was stored inside mountain holes called nevere. Within the royal household Giovanni received thorough training, but in 1902 his father Giacomo died. The following year an order was issued at court forbidding beards and moustaches for kitchen staff for reasons of hygiene. Giovanni preferred to resign. He returned to the shop with his mother and brother Salvatore and they moved to Piazza Navona, opening an ice-cream parlour.
The successes of the pastry shop and technological advances encouraged the Fassi family to take further steps forward, so much so that Giovanni moved his business to Via Piave where he opened the Great Sicilian Electric Ice Cream Shop. In fact, electric lighting had become widespread and the Fassi family equipped themselves with the first electric refrigerating machines imported from Germany. The sale of ice fell more and more to make way for ice cream, which was transformed from an elite product into popular consumption and conquered the man in the street also because of its low price. During the years of his entrepreneurial activity, Giovanni could count on his mother Giuseppina and his wife, also named Giuseppina, who are among the first female entrepreneurs of renown in the Roman world and to whom the courtyard and the outdoor hall are dedicated. In addition, a number of typical ice-cream products such as the Caterinetta and the Sicilian Cassata and Giuseppina are born in their footprint. The Caterinette are semifreddi inspired by the Caterinette, Turin's emancipated seamstresses devoted to Saint Catherine. Ninetto was born, the first ice cream on a stick dedicated by Giuseppina to her husband Giovanni. In fact, Giovanni's nickname was Nino and, as he was a man of small stature, the diminutive was added and he became Ninetto.
The Fassi family took an active part in the social life of Rome. During the First World War they helped to organise charity events and concerts to raise funds for the families of soldiers at the front, and at the end of the war the ice-cream parlour became a fashionable place and a point of reference for the whole city, so much so that it was frequented by illustrious figures such as D'Annunzio and Trilussa. But Giovanni and Giuseppina looked even further ahead and in 1924 bought the current premises in the Esquilino district. Initially it was a stable with carriages and horses. It took three years for the palace to be restored, until 1927, and in 1928 the Palazzo del Freddo was inaugurated. But 1927 was a special year because it also marked the market launch of the Telegelato Giuseppina or take-away ice cream. The great intuition was the use of dry ice for product preservation, still used today, which at the time guaranteed ice cream preservation for up to 48 hours. In no time at all, the telegelato made its way not only around Italy but also around the world. Italo Balbo for example, governor of Libya, often brought large quantities to Italian Africa.
The years ran fast and frosty for the Palazzo del Freddo, political scenarios changed and Mussolini's Italy allied with Hitler's Germany until the outbreak of World War II. It was then that the Palazzo del Freddo had to close due to the difficulty in finding raw materials. Moreover, when American troops arrived in Rome in ‘44, the American Red Cross requisitioned the Palazzo del Freddo (the deed is kept framed in the ice-cream parlour), paying the rent and assistance from the Fassi. The electrical system was restored and the Americans also devoted themselves to the production of ice cream using their typical method, i.e. the industrial method, in fact making ice cream that was frothier and puffier thanks to the only machine on the Italian market suitable for industrial processing. In 1946, the Americans left the Palazzo del Freddo and an event happened that could have changed the course of Fassi's history. Giovanni sold the industrial production machinery to the manager of Red Cross, who opened a workshop in 1947, inviting Giovanni Fassi to join the company together. However, Giovanni refused because he wanted to preserve the craftsmanship of his ice cream and not bow to industrial production, not knowing that the company that was founded was Algida. Algida is also inspired by Fassi products to make some products, for example the Cremino is inspired by the Ninetto while the Viennetta is inspired by the Caterinetta.
In 1977, at the age of 97, Giovanni Fassi died and in 1982 his wife Giuseppina also died. But the continuity of the business was ensured by their son Leonida and then his children Giovanni, Daniela and Fabrizio, who ran the ice-cream parlour together. Fabrizio is also the inventor of the Sanpietrino, a small square block of chocolate-frosted semifreddo. They are called sanpietrini precisely because their shape resembles that of the sanpietrini, which, being the typical Roman pavement, are also considered a dedication to the city of Rome. Finally, his nephew Andrea travels the world to propose franchising contracts based on the sale of exclusive recipes and licences to use the Roman brand. This is how many gelato parlours have been opened in South Korea, 80 in Seoul alone, and 2 gelato parlours in Shanghai. Since 2014, Andrea has been the managing director of Palazzo del Freddo and responsible for production both in Italy and abroad. In fact, Andrea often flies to Korea to teach Korean gelato makers how to make original Fassi gelato.
So the Fassi's is a solid industrial and commercial experience, despite the difficulties caused by the wars and the urban and social changes in the city of Rome. Events have shaken the ice-cream parlour but have not bent it, and the roots of homemade ice cream are still preserved here.
Palazzo del Freddo
Rome's historic artisan ice-cream parlour, active in the capital since 1880
Palazzo del Freddo: a 700 square metre headquarters with an open laboratory founded by Giovanni Fassi in 1928 (following several changes of location after the opening of the first shop in Via IV Novembre in 1880) and run together with his mother and wife, both named Giuseppina, to whom he would later dedicate two products still in production today and also the construction of an outdoor hall. In the 1960s, his son Leonida inherited his father's passion, holding prestigious positions in the Federazione Italiana Pubblici Esercizi and passing on the same enthusiasm to his sons Giovanni, Daniela and Fabrizio. Today at the helm of the Palazzo del Freddo is Andrea Fassi, who belongs to the fifth generation and brings with him the desire to expand the family brand: to the historical products, now registered trademarks, are added the new creations of the master craftsmen because in Via Principe Eugenio it is summer all year round.
