Food
Theme park featuring Italian food opens in Bologna
(10 Nov 2017) LEADIN:
Eataly, the Italian food empire, is opening a massive agro-food theme park in Bologna on Nov. 15.
Eataly World will feature 47 restaurants and bars, along with 22 gardens, farm animals and 40 production areas making everything from pasta to gelato.
It will also will hold cooking classes and workshops on topics like truffle hunting and gardening.
STORYLINE:
Tortellini folding, mozzarella making, pizza, coffee and mortadella sandwiches… welcome to Eataly World, the world’s first theme park dedicated to Italian food.
The facility in Bologna covers almost 100,000 square meters (24.7 acres) of food-related scenery and opens its gates on November 15.
The 120 million euros (USD 139.69 million) project, called FICO Eataly World is run by the Eataly food market chain and involves 150 companies exhibiting at the park.
Eataly has some 40 locations worldwide.
FICO stands for Fabbrica Italiana Contadina, or Italian Farm Factory.
The man behind Eataly, Oscar Farinetti, envisions Eataly World attracting 6 million visitors a year, half from abroad.
Farinetti hopes Eataly will also boost tourism elsewhere in Italy by encouraging visitors to seek out the origins of food they learned about at the park.
“As you know, our country is suffering a bit from the crisis. There are two simple things that our country has to work on in order to solve it. Double the number of foreign tourists. Just think that the number of tourists who come to Italy every year, is 47.5 million, let’s say 50 million. That’s the same number as in Manhattan. So maybe Italy can double that number. So, if we manage to double the number of foreign tourists and manage to double the export of our talents, that’s not only food, but also design, fashion, bags, which as you know, people like these things, furniture. We’ll resolve everything, because these products are made in Italy, they create jobs in Italy.”
The massive food park, nicknamed ‘Disney World for foodies’, boasts a 9,000 square meter (2.2 acres) market area, 2 hectares (4.9 acres) of fields and stables and 40 food factories where visitors can learn how their bread, pasta, oil and wine are produced.
Clients can take part in up to 30 events and 50 classes per day and dine in more than 4 dozen eateries, ranging from acclaimed restaurants to street-food carts.
Fabrizio De Filippis is an economist specialising in Italy’s food and agricultural sector at the Roma Tre University in Rome.
He says that the Italian food and agricultural sector makes up 15-18 percent of the country’s GDP and has been one of the determining forces in Italy’s recovery from the economic crisis.
“The Italian food and agricultural sector has survived quite well during this (economic) crisis. It has already been the most dynamic sector for a couple of years, especially considering the export of food and agricultural products. This is also because it succeeded in exporting more products aboard, compensating for the lower internal demand for food products, caused by the crisis. In this, obviously, the component of the “made in Italy” trademark of the food sector, our quality products, our excellent food products, known across the whole world, have obviously been the engine of this dynamic role of the food and agricultural sector.”
FICO Eataly World’s motto is “from field to fork”, enabling visitors to experience each step of the food production process.
At the Lavazza coffee space, patrons can see how coffee beans are roasted.
It is no coincidence that FICO Eataly World was built in Bologna.
De Filippis believes that FICO Eataly World can support Italy’s economic growth.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/73874ec8ac80cb07800af67d4c44fa78
source