The meeting point is in Perugia’s historic centre, at the corner of Via dei Cartolari and Via Alessi, in front of the elegant Palazzo Ansidei di Catrano. One’s imagination immediately drifts to the luxurious life of Luisa Spagnoli, a pioneering entrepreneur in the food and fashion sectors. She became wealthy, but she started in the basement of that very same building, at number 23.

A nondescript iron gate opens onto a short, uneven ramp. A glass and iron door was the entrance where over 50 workers and managers spread out over the four floors below street level. By the end of the Great War, she employed more than a hundred workers, almost all women. Welcome to the first factory of the Società Perugina per la fabbricazione dei confetti (Perugina Company for the production of sugared almonds).