A Sneak Peek Into The 20 Acre Italian Food Theme Park That Is Eately World

Foodies,listen up! There’s a big, and we mean 20 acres BIG reason to be looking forward to travelling to Bologna, Italy next year. Eataly, a chain of sprawling Italian food emporiums created by Oscar Farinetti in Turin in 2007, is opening it’s own food theme-park. Think Disneyland for food lovers! This Italian mega-food destination is being developed by the Italian Farming Factory (or FICO, acronym for Fabbrica Italiana COntadina). 

Sprawling across 20 acres (for comparison’s sake disneyland is 25,000 acres), the park will be a host to a whopping 25 restaurants. You will also be able to talk the best artisans, visit the grocery stores, improve your culinary skills at cooking classes, indulge in various wine tastings, make your own pasta an immerse in the whole Italian experience from farm to fork.

For instance, if you’re interested in learning more about pastas or cereals, you’ll get to experience the entire “cereal path” from seeing seeds planted in the fields, to watching how wheat becomes flours in mills, and finding out how they’re made into pastas and breads in laboratories.

Eately World: Every Foodie’s Dream Destination

Divided into six different “worlds” of fish, meat and eggs; milk and dairy products; cereals; fruit and vegetables; drinks and dressings; desserts, this Disneyland of Food will be a mix entertainment and education.

According to a rep for the upcoming attraction, Eataly World will be “both an entertainment and edutainment park that will showcase every aspect of Italian food, from production to consumption. “We call it from the farm to the fork because you can see all the steps of the chain, from the animals to the raw materials and workshops and restaurants,” said Tiziana Primori, vice-president of Eataly and CEO of Eataly World, at the MIPIM conference in Cannes, France.

City officials are hoping the park will boost tourism to Bologna – Eataly’s CEO has said he expects Eataly World to attract 10 million visitors a year. 

More Than Food

While food is a big enough reason to get excited, this enormous attraction also has a lot more in store for you. To facilitate getting around, and shopping, there will be 500 adult-sized, bright-colored tricycles equipped with shopping baskets, especially designed by the famed bicycle maker Bianchi. They’re the first hybrid bike/shopping carts in a retail space. 

Also, across two-and-a-half acres of orchards and farmland you will find olives, eggplant, melons, almond trees, and hazelnut trees—at least 30 kinds of produce. On the grazing land, you’ll find nine kinds of cows, as well as five kinds of pigs, five kinds of goats, five kinds of sheep, and rabbit, geese, and guinea hens. 

Every day, visitors will be able to see something being born, whether its your favourite pasta being made from scratch, or the process of prosciutto making. The same goes for beer and winemaking. 

Speaking of beer and winemaking, there will be three bars, featuring an Italian-focused one with cocktails like the all-important spritz. There will also be six ‘rides’ which are not your average amusement park rides, but what many might think of as enhanced virtual reality experiences.

To add yet another level to the Eataly World experience, the crew is building a hotel within the complex. The 200-room property is set to open in 2018