Fico, the largest agro-food center in Italy opens in Bologna on an area of 100,000 square meters. A real paradise for food lovers
di Barbara Boldini
Bologna-Lyon one at zero: the Emilia-Romagna capital beats the French culinary city on time thanks to FICo, the Italian Farmer Factory, the largest agro-food park in the world, which opens its doors more than one year ahead of the Cité Internationale de la Gastronomie that wants to make the birthplace of the great chef Paul Bocuse the world capital of eating and drinking quality. Without anything to take away from our cousins of Oltalpe, the fact remains that FICo is already a reality. And what a reality! An area of 100,000 square meters, designed by architect Thomas Bartoli and conceived by Oscar Farinetti (the theme park is also called Eataly World), which gathers the excellence of Italian food and wine. Some numbers of this ambitious project, which aims to accommodate 4 million visitors, both Italian and foreign, only in its first year of life: 45 dining points, from starred chefs (Heinz Beck, Enrico Bartolini, Gian Paolo Raschi, Alberto Bettini ) to those who offer regional street food. Not to mention the typical Italian products, represented by 40 companies and consortia that tell about the excellence of farm food from the field to the fork: within Fico there are in fact 2 hectares of fields and stables with more than 200 animals and 2.000 cultivars that allow the visitor to assist the whole process, except slaughter, of the main production chains that have made “made in Italy” known in the world, namely meat, fish, cheeses, pasta, oil, cakes, beer and even truffles. In addition to discovering how to prepare homemade cured meats, cheeses, breads and pasta, visitors can also learn to do so by enrolling in one of the many workshops (fifty) held in the classrooms (subscriptions: www.eatalyworld.it). But Fico is not just a place to eat, buy quality products, and get your hands dirty. The Park welcomes theater, cinema (with a planning of themed projections edited by the prestigious Cineteca di Bologna), a congress center, a foundation with 4 universities and numerous multimedia teaching activities devoted to Italian and foreign school children, for example the six educational carousel, dedicated to fire, land, sea, animals, wine, oil and beer and to the future: a real Disneyland of food that will undoubtedly leave the mark. Credits: Fico
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