Thank goodness I wore sneakers! Talk about a kid in a candy store. What to do first?! Watch an outdoor truffle hunt, take a bread-making class at Forno di Calzolari, go into one of multimedia carousels, see how Di Martino pasta or artisan Baladin beer is made? So many choices… wow, there’s even kids over there learning to stomp grapes! Sign me up!

FICO, the world’s largest food theme park, is ingeniously organized starting in the front with Italy’s appetizer foods – cured meats and cheeses – then moving on to 1st course specialties – pasta, rice, soups; breads, milk and eggs; main course foods, like Teatro del Carne “Theater of Meat”, where master butchers help you select a cut of beef, then walk you through the aging & cooking process.