A theme park based solely around traditional food and drink complete with interactive exhibitions, dozens of restaurants, a gargantuan food hall and a flotilla of bright blue tricycles for getting about? It could only happen in Italy. But Eataly World FICO (FICO stands for Fabbrica Italiana Contadina, which means ‘Italian Farmer Factory’) is tipped to be a huge success, with an incredible three million people expected to visit the site every month. We travelled to the park, based twenty minutes from the centre of Bologna, to attend the official preview – and we were blown away by the scale of the project.
The first thing you have to get your head around is the sheer scale of the place – think of it as the Disneyland of food. It’s 100,000 square metres of pure, unadulterated food-focused fun, beautifully designed by the architect Thomas Bartoli. The main aim is to educate those visiting about Italy’s rich culinary landscape, get them to try the foods that make Italian cuisine famous and taste regional specialities all in one place. At first it sounds a bit mad – a theme park based around Italian food? – but after a short walk around the grounds, it soon becomes clear that this is a playground for any home cook interested in the country’s cuisine.