Sign up with email

or

Already a member? Log in.

Trouble logging in?

Not a member? Sign up!

FICO Eataly World has been described in a number of ways – agricultural park, glorified supermarket, mall, bazaar, and production center have all been tossed around – but it was the moniker “the Disney World of food” that grabbed our imagination, conjuring up fanciful images of a log flume powered by wine instead of water and Mickey Mouse transformed into a giant ball of mozzarella standing on spindly legs.

The reality isn’t quite as whimsical (although the venue does have an animated fig mascot, a plump green character whose rotund belly recalls the Kool Aid Man). The self-described “agri-food park,” which occupies a former wholesale market on the outskirts of Bologna, is like Eataly, the Italian food hall and market “concept” that has seen success across the world, but also not. “Let me be clear, we are not a big Eataly,” Silvia Zanelli, a press officer for FICO (the acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Contadina or Italian Farming Factory), told us. “There’s a marketplace managed by Eataly. But FICO brand products are produced here, in one of the park’s 40 farming factories.”

She’s right. Interspersed with displays of regional Italian food products are the aforementioned factories and educational “carousels” and restaurants and animal pens and a football pitch and a bookshop and a tobacco store and a mini-golf course and even a hair salon – in this abundance it is like Disney, a place where almost every need has been anticipated.

Yet everything orbits around Italian food: consuming Italian food, learning about Italian food, making Italian food. Eataly has positioned itself as an authority on Italian cuisine – “Italy Is Eataly” can be found on all manner of signage and swag in its stores – and its giant outposts in the world’s global cities give visitors the chance to travel through taste. FICO builds on this idea of the centralized food hall as an all-inclusive destination and takes it a step further, transforming a neglected sprawling space outside of Bologna’s city center into a thriving Little Italy, a one-stop shop for the peninsula’s sundry cuisines.

“FICO, like Eataly, profits on the image of Italy as a country of culinary delights. What’s particularly innovative is that it brings in one bounded space what looks like a rich amount of diverse products – food, but also classes and experiences,” explained Annalisa Colombino, an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Geography of the University of Graz whose work explores the intersection of food, tourism and urbanism. “The innovation lies not in selling quality food but in selling experiences and education.”

Visiting the behemoth FICO is certainly an experience. Just getting there requires a car or tickets for a special bus that runs from the Bologna train station. On our trip to the park, we found ourselves riding an almost empty bus with Jim and Donna, a retired couple from Vermont. Jim explained how they travel to Italy a lot and were eager to visit FICO after reading about it in The New York Times last fall (its opening in November 2017 was covered extensively by the international press). “We probably won’t buy anything,” he said assuredly.

Upon arrival, the throngs of students, both elementary aged kids and high schoolers, clustered around the entrance are more noticeable than the giant structure’s unremarkable gray exterior. Inside, the park is absolutely teeming with them. Despite the promise of lunch in a few hours, we spy a few eating foil-wrapped sandwiches brought from home as they wander down the central aisles in small packs.

Once we cleared the young hordes, the first thing we noticed was the smell, a heady combination of freshly baked pastries and cured meats, then the sleek space with its polished wooden beams crisscrossing the ceiling, sophisticated lighting and airy second-floor windows. Over the loudspeaker system a mechanical voice interrupts the pop hits to announce in Italian and then English upcoming demonstrations and tours, not unlike boarding calls at the airport.

Wandering around before our 11 a.m. tour, we couldn’t help but be impressed by the displays, which are well designed if somewhat sanitized. Such an approach works just fine when you’re selling jars of fruit preserves, like the ones we found bathed in a bright warm light befitting cosmetics or perfume, but less so when it comes to fresh produce: the puny stand selling fruits and vegetables seemed like more of a cursory acknowledgement of Italy’s agricultural sector than the spring bounty one would expect at this time of year.

This focus on unique Italian creations, particularly those items made in-house, continued on our tour. With a map of Italy in hand, Sabrina guided our group of English-speaking visitors, some from the U.S., others from Australia, around the park with stops at most restaurants and production centers to tell us about the food in question: where it comes from and how it’s made. If we were lucky, we even got a taste.

While there was a stop outside to see the fields and stables, what we found didn’t quite represent “the beauty of agriculture and animal breeding,” as promised by FICO. The pigs – different native Italian breeds – were rooting around in small pens that looked onto other industrial buildings. These animals are part of the park’s efforts to recreate and represent the full production cycle, so we asked Sabrina whether the pigs will be slaughtered to make the juicy mortadella, cooked cured pork meat, we had just tried. “No, no, we don’t kill them here, we don’t want to think about that,” she responded quickly. “We hope that by seeing live animals, people will want to treat them better.”

It became clear that the heart of the park was found inside, in the products made in the large white factory rooms and presented on carefully crafted displays. Many will be familiar for anyone who regularly goes food shopping or eats out in Italy. The Bologna-based dairy company Granarolo runs a dairy factory on premises, making mozzarella, ricotta and yogurt every day. “You can find and buy all their products in these refrigerators. They’ll have the FICO label,” Sabrina said, one of a steady stream of reminders that everything we saw was for sale.

A bit later we caught sight of Rossopomodoro, a pizza chain headquartered in Naples. Just like at Granarolo, we peered through the glass window to watch the producers and their shiny machines in action. (It was around this time that we ran into Jim and Donna, both smiling with bags in hand.)

We never spoke to the producers, instead watching them behind glass walls as if we were in a zoo or a living museum.

“While Disney World is a fantasy, FICO is reality,” Silvia told us later in the day. “The producers are real workers who have moved part of their production inside the park. So you can see with your own eyes how iconic Italian foods are made by people who have been making them all their lives.”

Opening up the factory’s doors is one of FICO’s major draws. “The park appeals to both foodies and aspiring foodies, mainly city dwellers who are becoming more interested and concerned about where their food comes from,” said Fabio Parasecoli, a Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University. Most visitors are bound to learn something new on the tour, which gets into the nitty-gritty details about regional delicacies from all over Italy, and the other people on our tour only had good things to say about the experience. (Yet despite the much-touted free entry to FICO, this educational experience, like all such experiences at the park, is not free – the grand tour costs 15 euros and most courses are in the 15-20 euro range per person.)

By shrinking Italy into one large hall, the organization behind FICO has catered to a growing desire for not just authenticity and variety, but also ease. As someone on our tour put it, “This kind of feels like cheating.” While taste is subjective and we could argue endlessly about the best brand of mozzarella or gelato, FICO is built on the idea that the food products on offer are Italy’s best, even if it’s not stated outright. But perhaps more importantly, all of these products can be found in the same place, being made by experienced producers.

Except that we never spoke to the producers, instead watching them behind glass walls as if we were in a zoo or a living museum. Visiting Bologna’s traditional market district, the Quadrilatero, after a full day at FICO was a reminder of how integral a role human interaction can play in food experiences.

We had a lively conversation about Parmigiano Reggiano cheese with one of the men behind the counter at Ceccarelli Amadeo delicatessen, and later discussed the merits of tortelloni versus tortellini at Atti & Figli bakery. “You can find a lot of good food at FICO. But it’s really a big supermarket with good food that’s very expensive,” said Francesco Bonaga, whose family owns Atti & Figli. “We’ve been here for 150 years and see ourselves as very different from FICO.”

As we walked around the high-ceilinged bakery adorned with art deco flourishes, Francesco told us the history behind some of his family’s recipes, information that was often repeated in hand-written signs above the baked goods. Education is an important component in food sales, an element that FICO has grasped onto. But so are the stories about the people who make and sell the food, and the stories spun at FICO are all about brands. It’s a small yet crucial difference that’s easy to overlook when an expansive, tangled culinary heritage is presented in a neatly wrapped package.

  • Huaraches RossyFebruary 16, 2022 Huaraches Rossy (0)
    Visiting the Jamaica plant and flower market is one of our favorite activities in Mexico […] Posted in Mexico City
  • Market WatchJune 18, 2019 Market Watch (0)
    “What year did you marry your wife?” we ask Rafael Hernandez, known as El Negrito of […] Posted in Mexico City
  • Market WatchMay 7, 2019 Market Watch (0)
    On a recent Saturday morning, we climbed Fernandes Tomás Street in Porto, following grid […] Posted in Porto
Emma Harper

Published on May 18, 2018

Related stories

February 16, 2022

Huaraches Rossy: Big Stuff

Mexico City | By Ben Herrera
Mexico CityVisiting the Jamaica plant and flower market is one of our favorite activities in Mexico City; we love getting lost in its green alleys and never fail to emerge with at least one new plant and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. And of course, we’re always on the lookout for new places to eat. Our…
Rafael Hernandez, known as El Negrito, photo by PJ Rountree
June 18, 2019

Market Watch: El Negrito, the Elder of Mercado Medellín

Mexico City | By Lydia Carey
Mexico City“What year did you marry your wife?” we ask Rafael Hernandez, known as El Negrito of Mercado Medellín, one Saturday afternoon at his vegetable stand. “I don’t know!” He breaks into uncontrollable laughter, “She knows though!” “What year did we get married, Gorda?” he asks the woman next to him. Her hair is tightly permed…
May 7, 2019

Market Watch: Temporarily Dislocated, Porto’s Bolhão Market Still Shines

Porto | By Cláudia Brandão
PortoOn a recent Saturday morning, we climbed Fernandes Tomás Street in Porto, following grid drawn on the ground to guide even those with the poorest sense of direction to the temporary location of the iconic Bolhão Market. Originally built in 1839, the market is one of the most prominent structures in downtown Porto. The current neoclassical structure was completed in 1914 and…
Select your currency
USD United States (US) dollar
EUR Euro