Bologna: FICO Eataly World!

This weekend, we flew to Bologna and were lucky enough to visit FICO Eataly World! This food amusement park opened just a few months ago in November. From one end to the other, it is about a mile of restaurants, attractions, animals, and of course, a lot of food samples. This was every foodie's dream - surrounded by food for a day! We stayed for about eight hours, yes eight, and made sure to see everything from the attractions to dining at the restaurants and everything in between! This is a must-see for anyone traveling to Bologna!  

 When you get to the entrance, you are immediately taken back by the size of this place! It is enormous, with the entrance on one end and the exit on the other. From the moment we stepped in, I knew it was going to be a long, but exciting time. One of my favorite parts was all of the information areas that explained things like why FICO world or about the different regions and where the food is coming from. This is definitely a space to learn as well as eat and have fun. I was surprised at the number of people who were just there grocery shopping as well!

 This is a jam made by Roboqbo, a company that only makes these jams in Italy. They have a special machine that makes these jams in some sort of vacuumed environment where the flavor of this jam is out of this world! It tastes as if you are eating the fruit that is in the jar. My favorite two were the raspberry and strawberry with a very juicy flavor. I was not the biggest fan of the wildberry, just because there were a lot of seeds, but the flavor was really good. They had many other flavors including:
- Apricot
- Cherry
- Apple
- Strawberry
- Raspberry
- Wildberry
- Pear

Another part of the FICO is the animals! They have all types of cows, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, pigs, etc. In front of each, there is an information sign explaining where each animal is coming from, how they got to Italy, and a few other things. This was really cool to see the animal right there and also have the comparison of where they are coming from. In Italy, they are a lot more upfront with the fact that animals are eaten, where in the US it seems to be a lot more divided. But this is a food amusement park with animals, which allows you to see what you are eating, how they live, and where they are from.

They also have an area where you can plant your own veggie! I planted butter lettuce and this is done through hydroponic planting. This means that the plant sits in water and is grown that way, inside, instead of out in a garden in the dirt. They do this also in the US in a lot of places, but especially cities. There is a company in NYC that produces different microgreens to fine dining restaurants that are all grown hydroponically.
(You are also able to watch your plant grow on their website!)

They had a lot of veggies for sale that is local to Italy of course, but it was cool to see some of the different veggies that we talk about in class. I loved the inside of FICO and all of the different areas inside of it. In this area, it was very much a farm sand feel, and then you walked 100 ft and you were in a whole new section.

We also got to play this really cool game in the Mortadella section of FICO called Torno di Mortadella. The game makers were there and showed us how to play and treated us to some Mortadella. This game is based on Game of Thrones and it was a lot of fun, so much so that Logan and I bought one to take back to the states.

We did a lot of other things, but I could go on and on with about a hundred pictures! From wine tastings, Aceto balsamico tastings, truffles, sweets, cookbooks, coffee, I could go on and on!
Again, if you go to Bologna, you must go to FICO. The entrance is free, but you must pay to park (or there is a public bus for 5 euro or you can take a taxi). There are a lot of free samples and obviously, a lot of things to buy, see and do. It is a must see!

With love,
Baylee Mello