When Does Eataly World Open?
Eataly has been teasing devoted fans for a couple of years now with plans for FICO Eataly World, essentially a theme park crossed with a temple to Italian food in Bologna, Italy. But now you can finalize your pilgrimage across the world, as the team behind the park has officially announced an opening date of November 15, Business Insider reports.
The 20-acre, $106 million complex will have 40 restaurants focused on different Italian specialties like meat preparations, pasta, pizza and cocktails (hello, spritz o'clock). But the idea is that the six million anticipated annual guests—who won't even have to pay an entrance fee—will come for more than just a meal. There will be classrooms where visitors can see how prosciutto is made, farms and orchards where olives and eggplant will be grown, and pastures where different breeds of cows, pigs, sheep and other animals will graze.
Much of what's grown will help supply the 40 shops on the premises, around which guests will get to ride three-wheeled Bianchi bikes. And though there won't be any dedicated theme park rides—likely a wise decision, considering food and roller coasters don't mix terribly well—there will be virtual-reality experiences like one called Man & Fire, which should give people the idea of what it's like to be in the midst of a fire, presumably without burning up.
This article was originally published on 11/18/2016 and was updated by Andrew Bui with additional content on 8/31/2017.