Legendary rest stops above the motorway
From our editorial team
The moment your holiday in Italy really begins is the first stop at the autogrill. A first stop between Fiat, wanderlust and focaccia
Not just any motorway service station. But this one, which looks like a futuristic launderette or an airport terminal from the 1960s. Lots of steel and even more glass. Which promises from afar: Here you'll find Caffè. And Panini. And a piece of Italy before you switch off the engine. What hardly anyone knows today is that the Italian motorway legend once started with Biscuits an.
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When the Caffè was still a marketing gimmick
The story of the iconic Italian restaurant begins at the end of the 1940s, in 1947 to be precise, when the country was still reeling from the Second World War, Italy has more oxcarts than cars - The motorways are empty. Nevertheless, a baker's son from Novara has an idea. Mario Pavesi set up a small kiosk on the Milan-Turin motorway, then a sluggish concrete artery in the northern Italian plain. There, near the tollbooth at Novara, he sold his Pavesini biscuits. With an espresso. A few tables, a few armchairs, a canopy against the sun. The whole thing is intended as an advert for the family biscuit factory.
In the fast lane with a view
At the end of the 1950s, Italy is on the move - in both senses of the word. People were building, producing and driving. And eaten. The small kiosk became a covered hall, then a restaurant, then a proper stop with a bar, kitchen and shop. More and more people have a car - and have to stop somewhere. Mario Pavesi is on the right tarmac at the right time. What began as a shop window became the blueprint for a new concept at the time: a place where traffic stops and consumer society begins.
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The first bridge restaurant in Europe
With growing success come the imitators: Motta and Alemagna, two heavyweights from the Milanese food aristocracy, are also getting in on the act. The Autogrill restaurants are the first to offer a new kind of shopping experience: the opportunity to choose from a wide range of products, which are advertised in the first television programmes.
The Pavesi Grill reacts spectacularly to its competitors: Europe's first bridge restaurant was built near Fiorenzuola d'Arda in 1959. A glass box on stilts, across the motorway, steel and exposed concrete, designed by architect Angelo Bianchetti. In 1961, Motta-Grill followed suit in Cantagallo: a colossus on the "Autostrada del Sole" near Bologna and Florence, where people stopped for a Sunday lunch to eat lasagne and watch the cars speed by through the glass walls.
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The new middle class is proud of its cars and its holiday plans. The car grill is the hinge between home and adventure. Between everyday life and the coast. With the oil crisis comes the turning point. The three big chains - Pavesi, Motta, Alemagna - start to falter. The state took over. In 1977, they were merged under the name Autogrill S.p.A.. A pragmatic step to save the system - and at the same time the beginning of a new era.
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From concrete building to global brand
In the 80s, the Autogrill was back on top form. Italy was experiencing its second economic spring. The new prosperity had an appetite - and the Autogrill satisfied it with Barilla pasta, Ciao bistros, Spizzico snack bars and takeaway VHS tapes. People drank Sanbittèr, bought Campari, and those in urgent need of gifts took gift-wrapped Parmigiano.
Then the company expanded: France, Spain, Benelux, USA. With the purchase of the US catering group HMSHost came the move into airports - and suddenly the Italian service station pioneer was serving sandwiches at gates in Atlanta, Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi.
And today?
There are still around 400 Autogrills in Italy today. Some look like designer hotels, others like time capsules with neon lights. Some have organic panini with chia seeds. But that first espresso across the border is something you can't google. Sometimes it's not the beach that makes you feel like you're on holiday, but the caffè by the motorway.
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