VESPASIA FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Vincenzo & Federico Bianconi
Vincenzo & Federico Bianconi
he “Manifesto” of the Vespasia restaurant contains the key elements and the values on which we have built our choices, our cuisine and relationship with our land. It is our contribution to a better, more aware and sustainable world.
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Our family has been catering in Norcia since 1850. In over 170 years of history we have seen the world change: Guests, Collaborators, Suppliers, ourselves and our families, as well as the local community that surrounds us. With some we shared moments of joy and pain, reconfirming our trust, respect and projects year after year.
The 2016 earthquake and then the Covid pandemic changed our lives and that of many people around us. These events shacked our certainties but have not bent our determination and our desire to rise again, with a renewed awareness and aspiration to become better people.
We had time to reflect and then choose our most sustainable path, the one that we hope will lead us and the people who share it to make another small contribution to the world around us.
The Vespasia project was born from Vincenzo and Federico Bianconi, the sixth generation of this tenacious family of Italian restaurateurs.
The two brothers had been always in love with the world of catering and hospitality and trained from an early age in the family business. Then they studied Tourism Economics and subsequently broadened their horizons through work and study experiences made in Italy and abroad.
Their first “immersion” in the world of haute cuisine took place in the early nineties, at the court of the great master of Italian cuisine, Gualtiero Marchesi, at the time of Via Bonvesin della Riva in Milan. This period, which lasted a few months, left an indelible mark on their vision of catering. That spark later became fire thanks to the friendships born in Relais & Châteaux, with the Cinque family from Positano, Iaccarino di Sant’Agata sui due Golfi, with the found brothers of Colle Valdelsa, Francesco Cerea, Emanuele Scarello and with the “grande dame ” of Italian cuisine, Annie Féolde.
The Vespasia project is the result of these contaminations, a stimulus for this family of restaurateurs who, since 1850, have always tried to improve themselves, not limiting themselves to their own company perimeter, but involving in this path, with different initiatives, the entire community in which operate such as: – the foundation of the Norcia Biological District, which promotes a sustainable vision and sharing of communities through food; – the We are Norcia Consortium of entrepreneurs, created to fight the economic crisis triggered by the 2016 earthquake in a proactive and constructive manner; – the non-profit association I Love Norcia, which pursues the aim of relaunching the social ambitions of this community after the earthquake, starting with children.
Returning to the “Bianconi Universe” it must be said that the Vespasia Project could not have been born in any case if there had not been Carlo and Anna, parents of Vincenzo and Federico, key figures and reference of the two brothers and more.
With their desire for social revenge, spirit of sacrifice, determination and vision, honesty and a great sense of hospitality, they allowed the small family inn, in the sixties, to make a great leap forward, becoming a real company. 13 rooms in 2016 had become over 240 in 4 hotels; the small family restaurant had taken up almost the entire block and 3 others had been added to this, different in offer and style; the 4 “handyman” collaborators had become about 150 and to this, then, was added the 1 sports Hall among the best in Italy and 2 shops selling typical products (the latter in participation with a local partner).
Then came the 2016 earthquake. In that year the Bianconi lost almost everything, 170 years of sacrifices that disappeared in a few minutes.
The head of the family Carlo Bianconi once again traces the route to follow after the earthquake. At that time there was a need for certainties and those on which the Bianconi knew they could count were and are: the determination to get back on their feet, the propensity to sacrifice, love their work, being willing to question themselves, interpreting in their own way the change in their community, in the market and in people’s lifestyles.
From the difficulties of those years, today the Vespasia project is reborn, in the sign of awareness of the place, of the quality that one wants to offer, of the choices necessary to make the project sustainable from an environmental, social and entrepreneurial point of view.
The challenge begins, the determination of the family and, with it, of all its collaborators in sharing the project and its values is absolute. Guests have the honor of trying.