Ea(s)t Lombardy in numbers

The event in Astino – with the celebration of Da Vittorio’s 50th anniversary, the official presentation of Ea(s)t Lombardy and the opening of the Year of Tourism in Lombardy, we’ve already covered it here – was such a big success mostly thanks to an incredible organisational effort. This was based first of all on the Cerea family, then on Identità Golose and all the institutions involved – starting from the Municipality of Bergamo and in fact mayor Giorgio Gori praised his operational arm Christophe Sanchez.

The numbers behind the event were truly incredible: 21 starred restaurants from the four provinces, a total of 40 cooks, plus 80 waiters. Da Vittorio had its staff involved: 45 were in Astino. The other waiters came instead from Bergamo’s catering schools. All this was to offer an impeccable service to 650 guests, two thirds of whom paying, wanting to take part in the event and taste 21 dishes, not counting the cakes and other desserts made by the Cerea brothers. Over 3 thousand bottles of wine from Ca’ del Bosco, Consorzio Vini Mantovani and Consorzio Tutela Lugana Doc were opened.

After all, these numbers reflect those of the four provinces of Erg-Ea(s)t Lombardy. Put together, Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona and Mantua represent an extraordinary area. It spreads from the north to the south of Lombardy, covering little less than half the region’s surface. The resulting landscape is very varied: from the Alpi Orobie to the farming areas of the Po Valley (56% of Lombardy’s agricultural land is here), touching very industrialised areas, landscapes with a huge naturalistic value and beautiful artistic cities. There are 6 sites included in the Unesco World Heritage List: Mantua and Sabbioneta, Cremona’s violin craftsmanship (an Intangible Cultural Heritage), company town Crespi d’Adda, the Alpine pile dwellings, the places of worship and power of Longobard Italy and the cave art in Val Camonica. There are over 3 million inhabitants in East Lombardy.

The local wine and food offer is remarkable. The fine dining offer includes 22 starred restaurants (of which 2 with 3 Michelin stars, Da Vittorio in Brusaporto and Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull’Oglio. No other area in Italy matches this. The stars are 28 in total), 10 are among the best restaurants according to Gambero Rosso, 22 restaurants are reviewed by Identità Golose, and dozens and dozens of other excellent establishments are scattered around the entire area (13 Slow Food Snails).

The number of food products that have a certification of origin, basically all the types available (PDO and PGI, Docg, Doc and Igt) is noteworthy. East Lombardy offers over half the products of the entire region.

In particular there are 2 Docg (Moscato di Scanzo in Bergamo and Franciacorta in Brescia), 13 Doc (2 in the province of Bergamo, 9 in Brescia and 2 in Mantua), on top of 10 Igt wines (1 in Bergamo, 5 in Brescia and 5 in Mantua). Overall, 25 wine excellences.

Cremona’s production is not significant in this field, but it’s very strong in terms of high quality products. In general, considering the PDO products, the Ea(s)t Lombardy has 2 made with meat, 12 types of cheese and 2 olive oils, a total of 16. The PGIs are 9, of which 5 made with meat, 2 with fish and 2 with fruits and vegetables. The total of certified product is thus 25, plus the 126 Pat products (Prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali acknowledged by Regione Lombardia). The 11 Slow Food Presidia also need to be mentioned.

Every year, some 11.5 million people visit East Lombardy (62% are foreigners) and stay on average 3.1 days. The area has 3,400 accommodation facilities and almost 23 thousand people working in the hospitality and restaurant industry. They can also count on 8 Roads of Wine and Taste. And also: 753 agritourism and 115 educational farms present a territory that has a remarkable standard of food and wine in Europe. As for innovation and production-related quality research, according to the data collected in the Istat agricultural census in 2010 there are 2,031 farms cultivating PDO and/or PGI products (6.3% of the total) and 3,884 breeding PDO and/or PGI animals (29.8% of the total). With these numbers, East Lombardy is among the leading areas in terms of wine and food.

The tourism offer is completed by over 143 thousand beds, a rich transport network, 2 airports, high-speed trains, a strong presence of complementary accommodation facilities such as camping sites and B&Bs.