Our journey starts with Gunter and Ester, a Dutch couple who love Italy and have planned a holiday on the Romagna coast this year too. As they do every summer, they’ve decided to us e a car so they are freer to move around. After a dawn start and endless km on hot asphalt, it’s time to take a break, a nice gratifying stop off.

12.00 -Paul loosens his tie with gusto

You never know what to expect when you’re away for work. The day starts early in the morning and ends late in the evening.

Meetings, speeches, handshaking, questions to answer and then  – whether those meetings were profitable or not – comes the time to loosen your tie. The silk slides under collar and you stop being Paul Johnston from the sales department and go back to being plain Paul, a traveller with a bit of free time in his overnight bag.

A record-breaking motorway service area

Autogrill Pavesi of Fiorenzuola d’Arda was the first motorway service area restaurant to be built on a bridge in Europe, in 1959, and is still one of the most iconic symbols of the modernization of our country and of the economic miracle. In 2016 the same Autogrill will again play a leading role in a “great change” in on-the-road catering.

A strategic facility

Sometimes that's just how it goes: you find your place in the world quite by chance. 
Hundreds of tables, light sculptures, the library corner and the blend of Asian and European faces, yet of all the aspects of Helsinki-Vantaa airport, what really stays with you is one man - the chef of the Two Tigers - with his expression that is the true embodiment of someone fully aware of being in harmony with life.

A late night coffee break and chat on a journey through a sleeping world, the sound of trolleys trundling through Departures in the airports that embroider the planet, or waiting for a train, which is already part of the journey.

Johnathan Hanh Nguyen welcomes us with a smile and leads us to the armchairs in the Star Café. Despite being one of his country’s most influential men, he proves to be a person of great simplicity and politeness, making sure we are comfortably seated and personally ordering our refreshments.

It was 1928, when in Milan, in Galleria Carlo Alberto, Bar Motta was inaugurated, designed by architect Melchiorre Bega, and quickly became a symbol of the city and a meeting place for the bourgeoisie, students, intellectuals and artists . Its stylish and welcoming ambience, the bar counter, the showcase, the ice cream corner and a wide variety of specialty sweets helped making the tradition of Italian coffee famous in the world.

“In addition to being a formidable comedian, he was also a foodie, totally on the ball where cooking was concerned”.

They say that in the sixties, Ugo Tognazzi used to arrive at the legendary Cantagallo Autogrill service station at five in the morning to enjoy traditional Bologna delicacies.

The culture of good food, a love for typical produce, a chance to learn about the local area, conviviality. 
Even then, these were the fundamental ingredients for the Autogrill lifestyle.