On the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo Da Vinci, Fiumicino airport continues to celebrate the life of the Vinciano genius, starting with an exhibition on 2nd May of this year, displaying to the passengers of Italy’s busiest airport, some of the artist’s flight machines, reproduced in life-size, as well as a multimedia area which presented Leonardo’s drawings on the Codex on the flight of birds.

The theme of this second celebration is the inventor’s great passion for cooking that, according to some historical reconstructions, even pushed Leonardo to dedicate himself to culinary arts. It is important to note that in some of his works and drawings the artist seemed to have been inspired by utensils that are present in all modern kitchens, such as corkscrews and pepper grinders.

In order to honour this lesser known side of Leonardo, which remains buried somewhere between legend and mystery, two of Lazio’s Michelin-star chefs, Gianfranco Pacuccio and Daniele Usai, took part in an unprecedented cooking show, entertaining passengers in the “Italian Food Street”, in Boarding Area E for international flights. The chefs prepared the travellers dishes in celebration of Da Vinci, using only specialities from Lazio. Daniele Usai recreated ‘Acquarosa’, a beverage that tradition has ascribed to Leonardo, made with acquarosa extract, sugar, lemon and a little alcohol, making it a great pasta sauce. Gianfranco Pascucci made a dish inspired by the artist’s inventions which he called “The Sea” with shellfish, herbs and fermented Kombu.

The event, organised by ADR, attracted a large crowd of Italian and foreign passengers, who were given the opportunity to discover regional dishes, re-imagined in the context of “Italian Street Food”, made with the highest quality Italian products. This initiative has confirmed, once again, Rome’s largest airport to be the international public ambassador of fine Italian produce. Fiumicino’s passengers were able to admire the culinary demonstration from video screens airing the cooking show live in the airport.

The event is one of the cultural initiatives characterising passengers’ experience of the Leonardo da Vinci airport, that, in recent years, has become the most highly valued western hub, according to official Airports Council International findings.

Aeroporti di Roma, an Atlantia Group Company, manages and develops the Fiumicino and Ciampino airports in Rome and carried out other activities related and complementary to airport management. Fiumicino has two passenger terminals. It is dedicated to business and leisure clients on national, international and intercontinental routes. Ciampino is mainly used by low-cost airlines, by express couriers and for General Aviation operations. In 2018, the ADR airport system registered 48.8 million passengers, with over 230 destinations across the world, accessible from Rome, thanks to around 100 airlines operating in the two airports. According to Skytrax, in 2017 Fiumicino was the world’s number one airport for improvements and developments to its services. This award adds to the award granted to the airport by the Airports Council International World as the most appreciated airport in Europe amongst hubs with more than 40 million passengers, and to the “Best Airport Award” 2018 given to the Rome airport during the annual assembly of Airports Council International Europe.