FICO Eataly World finally opened to the public on November 15, and I was lucky enough to visit it on its first Saturday open to the public. What luck that my trip to Bologna coinciding with the opening of the world’s largest agri-food park! Below you’ll find everything you need to know for planning your own trip to Italian food paradise.
Table of Contents
FICO Eataly World By The Numbers
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100,000 square meters to explore
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Admission is FREE!
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40+ food kiosks and restaurants (check out the full list here)
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100+ traditional shops
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40 “fabbriche contadine” (farming factories) to learn how Italian food is made
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6 walk-through interactive educational exhibits about the topics of Man and Fire, Earth, Sea, Animals, Bottled Goods, and Future (2 euros entry each)
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20,000 square meters of open-air fields and stables
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Open 7 days a week from 10am to 12am
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Shuttle from the train station beginning at 9:30am, every 30 minutes (20 minutes on weekends), for 7 euros round trip
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Opened to the public November 15, 2017
Workshops and Classes
Some of the various activities at Eataly World include everything from truffle hunting labradors to gelato-making lessons to the world of bees. You can find classrooms all over Eataly World, where currently 21 different classes and workshops are on offer with plans to have many more in the future. Some classes you can currently take include DIY gardening, food photography 101, learning from master olive-oil makers, and the art of making authentic Neopolitan pizza, just to name a few. To make the most of your time at Eataly World, you plan activities for your visit here.
One of the many classrooms at FICO Eataly World
A place for wine lectures
You can watch the process of how various things are made throughout the park
The Six Educational Exhibits
As stated earlier, FICO Eataly World has six walk-through interactive educational exhibits about the topics of Man and Fire, Earth, From Soil to Bottle, Sea, Animals, and Future. You can pay 2 euros at the gate for each of them or buy individual or combo tickets at the front entrance. During our time at the park, we visited the Future carousel, where you could learn about the future of agriculture and plant your own seeds in the hydroponic patch. Each one houses a unique interactive learning experience to explore.
Dining at Eataly World
If you go to FICO Eataly World, you’ll find that there are plenty of dining options to be had during your visit. There are 45 trattorias, Michelin-starred restaurants, and street-food stands at Eataly World, so it can be a little overwhelming choosing where to eat. During our visit, we made stops at Rossopomodoro Pizzeria Napoletana for pizza, La Gelateria Artigianale by Carpigiani for gelato, and Pastificio G. Di Martino for pasta.
With so many dining options though, it’s hard to go wrong. You can choose anything from Italian street food to fine dining – it’s all here. The gallery below is just a taste of some of the dining options to be had at FICO Eataly World.
Getting To and From
It’s difficult to get here without a car, and taxis in Bologna were surprisingly difficult to get. Luckily, we had a private car service to call to pick us up, but even that was a struggle to get them to pickup the phone. No taxis were in the queue, and no taxi company ever picked up the phone on the Saturday night we were there (we even had the info desk try to call for us). And no, there is no UBER or other rideshare apps in Bologna. There is a bus back to the city that you can take that is about every 20-30 minutes for 7 euros roundtrip, but then you still may have an issue of getting a taxi from there to wherever you may be staying, or figuring out further public transport. We never took buses during our stay, so I can’t say how easy or difficult Bologna’s public transportation may be.
Walking and Biking Inside Eataly World
FICO Eataly World is the largest agri-food park in the world, so it is.quite huge. That said, be prepared to do some walking to explore everything there is to offer. You can also rent free bikes with carts and ride around all of FICO – just pick up a key at the front entrance. The bikes lock, so no one can take the one you’re using if you leave it at a bike rack while shopping or at a restaurant.
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