From Fico to Grand Tour Italia, the bet that Oscar Farinetti doesn’t want to lose: “It will work”

In Bologna the owner of Eataly presented the relaunch plan for Fico, which will change its layout and name. Grand Tour Italia will reopen on September 5th: a journey through the food and wine of the 20 Italian regions in 5,000 steps. Keyword: "Trust".

BOLOGNA – Fico dies, Grand Tour Italia is born. Don’t rush, though. The works are still in progress and the park designed by Oscar Farinetti to “celebrate Italian biodiversity” will officially open its doors on September 5th. “We wanted to do it in four months, but it took us eight“, but it doesn’t matter, the volcanic Piedmontese entrepreneur suggests. The important thing is to do things right this time. Gran tour Italia will be a journey through the 20 Italian regions in 5,000 steps.

REOPENING IN SEPTEMBER

Key word for the project’s relaunch operation, “trust”, the one that Farinetti intends to regain towards the Bolognese community, that of the citizens and that of the economy, taking on responsibility for everything that is not went well with Fico.”It’s right to leave in September, also because the past must teach us. We are not Ibiza, the people who come to Bologna from outside come in other periods, Bologna is more attractive from September onwards. It’s the right choice”, recognizes the mayor Matteo Lepore, who assured the city’s support for Farinetti’s enterprise.

“PARDON, FORGIVENESS…”

“Forgive me, forgive me, I did more harm to myself“. It is the refrain of Caterina Caselli’s most famous song, a hit from the 1960s. “I wanted to make the commercial using this song, but instead we will use Gian Maria Testa, a song called ‘Nuovo'”, jokes Oscar Farinetti. What the Piedmontese entrepreneur, who has almost transformed everything he has touched into gold, is looking for the ‘sentimental connection’ with the city, a “trust” in the project that Eataly World certainly lacked >, welcomed with wrinkles by the city establishment right from the announcement, despite the fact that many of us invested in the operation. “Do you remember when I said ‘we’ll get six million visitors’? Whoever wants to disgrace me puts up the video from that day. Then I got three in the first year. I’ve never hit a target in my life, even when I was wrong by default”, it’s a river in flood, as usual, Farinetti.

THE BOLOGNESI? I LIKE THEM

“Trust”, he explains, is also the key word of the project (along with ‘luck’ and ‘steps’, 5,000 are needed to cover the entire route of the 20 regions, from Valle D’Aosta to Sicily). “We are very keen on becoming friendly with the great Bologna, the one that goes from Modena to Imola“, assures Farinetti, who chose Patrizio Roversi for the launch campaign of Grand Tour Italia. Lowering restaurant prices will be the other lever to convince Emilians to frequent the park a little more. “I find the people of Bologna very nice. Was I not understood? It’s never like that, you always have to say ‘I didn’t explain myself well’: you have to understand where you weren’t able to make yourself understood. We need to capitalize the mistake and change, what harm is there? I made mistakes many times. I could have cared, but I wanted to do it, for honor“, he assures.

ERRORS WITH FICO “ALL MY FAULT”

“The mistakes of the past? All my fault”, he cuts short, trying to close once and for all the chapter of recriminations on what didn’t work in the agri-food park project opened in 2017 with great expectations. The owner of Eataly is not a guy who likes to lose. Not money, that can happen to anyone who does business. “I’ve lost a lot of money, I don’t know an entrepreneur who hasn’t lost money on a lot of projects. Entrepreneurs who make money on everything, except that I don’t like them, but they don’t exist in nature I lost a lot less by giving up But I’m not going to say that this stuff doesn’t work, because the place is what it is, but it has to work the first year and a half. it had an enormous success and then it was managed without introducing anything new. In light of the mistakes made, we will try to make it work”, is the challenge of the owner of Eataly, who quantifies the investment in the relaunch of the park at around 15 million. agri-food.

WORKERS ON BREAK, “I PAY THEM”

An important aspect also concerns the protection of jobs: 70 Eataly World employees plus those of the partners present in the park, around a hundred people in total. “Our people will work all the time, there are many things to do. As for the employees of our partners, if someone is in difficulty we will pay their salaries and in the event of layoffs, we will supplement” up to 100% of the salary, guarantees. And if things go well, the goal is to hire again, until it doubles.

A TRIP UNDER THE ITALIAN PORTICOS

Grand Tour Italia will have a surface area of 50,000 square meters: the route will be a journey through the food and wine of the 20 Italian regions, each with its own space enclosed by porticoes, the architectural element that characterizes the new layout of the structure, a tribute to the UNESCO porticoes of Bologna. “Arcades are the symbol of Europe and Italy. Bologna is the city that has the most in the world: arcades protect from adversity, we have had it and we take shelter under them“, evokes Farinetti. The regions will host in rotation, one every month or two months, the taverns chosen by Slow Food (which will also take care of the educational part). “Here you have to feed well, otherwise it’s a mess”, admits Farinetti.

FROM FOOD TO GO KARTS

Each region, in addition to the catering area, will have spaces for teaching and for the sale of typical products. At the end of the route, a large track for electric go karts will take the place of the supermarket, managed by enthusiasts from Emilia with the involvement of Andrea De Adamich. “It will be amazing, the first one in Bologna, it will be a bomb,” he assures. Grand Tour will also host the dedicated museum, a museum dedicated to food-themed photographic art with shots from the Magnum Agency, four multimedia rides, a series of cultural activities related to books managed by the Holden school by Alessandro Baricco. “We want to go strong on the conference center”, adds Farinetti. “We will be open from Thursday to Sunday with free entry, but we will host a lot of events. This place must be kept alive. The Stadium will arrive in 2025 and we are ready to feed all these people. Then the tram also arrives”, he recalls.