“From this point on, we will deal with a most important work of nature: we will tell man the foods proper to him and force him to admit that his means of living are unknown to him” (Pliny, “Natural History”, book XX, 1). This quotation is right at the beginning of the charter for Pollenzo’s University of Gastronomic Sciences, which stemmed in the 1990s from Slow Food’s efforts to renovate the Savoy residence known as Agenzia and to return the complex to public use.

In its history, Pollenzo has been the fulcrum of many artistic experiments. Once an important Roman city, during the Middle Ages it became the seat of patrician Antonio Porro’s government (entrusted with the county by the Visconti family); finally, it was the feudal residence of the Marquis of Romagnano.