A Must for Foodies: Eataly World in Bologna

Eataly World is the perfect playground for foodies from around the world. When you enter the 1,000,000 square foot agri-food park, you’ll discover an experience that brings a new appreciation of the Farm to Table concept. The park, which is free to enter, has more than 45 trattorias, Michelin-starred restaurants, bistros, street-food kiosks, and bars. You’ll be able to eat prepared foods, shop the famous Eataly marketplace, and take culinary classes all while cruising on a bike especially designed for Eataly World.

The Marketplace

A nearly 30,000-square-foot market space sells items like formaggio (a.k.a., cheese), cured meats and desserts. There is a multitude of pop-up-style stores, selling Italian produce and kitchenware. At Eataly World, they’ve taken the store and added a full food experience including six experiential educational pavilions. You will also find several classrooms, sports and play areas dotted throughout the space; as well as a cinema and 1,000-capacity congress space.

The park is so big that visitors can get around on adorably quaint-looking bikes — complete with baskets to hold all your goodies. The bikes are from famed bicycle maker Bianchi. They’re the first hybrid bike/shopping carts in a retail space according to Primori.

The Farm

There are two-and-a-half acres of orchards and farmland include olives, eggplant, melons, almond trees, and hazelnut trees—at least 30 kinds of produce. On the grazing land more than 200 live animals call Eataly World their home. You’ll find nine kinds of cows (including Chianina, the source of the elite bistecca alla Fiorentina), as well as five kinds of pigs, five kinds of goats, five kinds of sheep, and rabbit, geese, and guinea hens.

The on-premises farms and factories educate visitors on how food is harvested and manufactured. You can see the cows who produce the milk that becomes the cheese you’re eating. Then you can see the aging process of that cheese before it becomes a nutty, salty, unbelievably complex and delicious sensory experience.

The Kitchen and Culinary Experience

The kitchens in the restaurants are visible behind glass paneling, and host over 30 daily culinary sessions to educate the consumer on food production, be it how to make William Di Carlo sugared almonds from Abruzzo, or how Olio Roi presses olive oil using its in-store press.

The workshops go beyond your usual food demos to emphasize the start-to-finish process. You’ll see wheat being turned into different kinds of flour, both by stone grinding and industrial milling. You’ll then see flour being made into several varieties of pasta. You can also watch, a Sarda sheep being milked and that milk turned into cheese.

At Eataly, each forkful of pasta has a story: farmers cultivated grains, millers ground flour, pastai (pasta makers) shaped dough, distributors delivered it to Eataly, and our chefs cooked the pasta to perfection and paired it with seasonal sauce before we drop it at your table.

Reserve at least two days on your itinerary to enjoy Eataly world and take in all the exhibits, restaurants, and shopping.