Experience
Defending a place name
Four days in a town of thirty thousand people that turned a durum wheat format into a name recognized all over the world, and in a large city next door that has other names to defend. The question is always the same: who owns a brand that carries the name of a place.
On this page
- On this experience you walk into a working pasta factory, but only in two windows of the year. The Consortium opens the factories on 30 May, as part of the Maggio della Cultura, and from 11 to 13 September, for Gragnano Città della Pasta, with visits by booking only. Outside those days the experience still exists, but without the production, and in that case the program says so. It is the only asterisk in the catalog and we would rather explain it here than let somebody who has already booked discover it.
Fact sheet
- Days
- 4
- Cities
- Naples and Gragnano
- Recommended season
- March to June and September to October; with production open, 30 May and 11 to 13 September
- Group
- 15 to 20 participants
- Language of the visits
- confirmed at the time of booking, site by site
- Schengen days used
- 4 out of 90, counting the day of entry and the day of exit
- Price
- Quotation on request
→ Request a quotation · Download the itinerary in PDF
Write which institution is bringing the group, how many participants there are and two possible dates. If either of the two falls inside the open-doors windows, we point it out in our answer.
Itinerary day by day
Day 1 — Naples. Where a city's accounts are kept
In the morning, the Museum and Historical Archive of the Banco di Napoli, Il Cartastorie, on via dei Tribunali. Inside are centuries of accounting records of a bank that lent to anybody, and that kept the descriptions: you read what people bought, who they owed and why. For a group of young entrepreneurs it is the most concrete lesson on credit there is. The ticket desk closes an hour before the museum.
In the afternoon, a two-hour working session on the sources seen that morning.
Day 2 — Gragnano. The format, the water, the name
In the morning, La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano. The company has a museum of its own with a dedicated booking page, and it explains why a pasta factory is born at that exact point of the valley: the air, the water, the orientation of the streets.
In the afternoon, Museo della Pasta Cuomo, on via Roma. A second player in the same chain in the same town, with a different history and a different industrial decision: it is the comparison that turns Gragnano into a lesson and not a stroll.
In the Consortium's two open-doors windows, the day changes and includes access to a working pasta factory, by booking.
Day 3 — Naples. A company two hundred and forty years old
In the morning, Museo M. Cilento dal 1780, on the Riviera di Chiaia. It is a Neapolitan tailor's shop that has worked since the eighteenth century and that opened a museum inside its own business. You talk about succession, about measurement and about what stays the same in a product when everything around it changes.
In the afternoon, a two-hour working session.
Day 4 — The comparison and the closing
In the morning, team work. One question is answered in writing: if tomorrow a Mexican company produced the same pasta by the same process, what it could write on the packaging and what it could not, and who would stop it.
In the afternoon, eight-minute presentations and discussion.
What you visit
| Place | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano | * Working pasta factory with its own museum and booking page | On request |
| Museo della Pasta Cuomo, Gragnano | Company museum of pasta, a second player in the chain in the same town | On request |
| Il Cartastorie — Museum and Historical Archive of the Banco di Napoli | Historical banking archive open to visits | On request |
| Museo M. Cilento dal 1780, Naples | Museum inside a tailor's shop working since 1780 | On request |
| Pastificio Garofalo, Consortium open doors | Access through a form published by the Consortium, only in the fixed-date windows | On request |
What is included and what is not
Included: admissions and guided visits to the confirmed sites, the booking and coordination with whoever receives the group, three working sessions totalling six hours, the materials, one person from the Istituto with the group throughout the experience and the certificate of participation in the experience. Not included: flight, transfers to and from the airport, travel between Naples and Gragnano, lodging, meals, urban transport, personal travel insurance.
The season, and why
You travel from March to June and from September to October.
January and February are out: companies reopen after 6 January and the Gragnano valley in winter works behind closed doors.
August is out.
The two dates when production is really seen are 30 May and 11-13 September, and they fall inside the recommended window. A group that can choose its date chooses one of those. The reason, month by month, is on the Seasons page.
Logistics and capacity
Gragnano is some forty kilometers from Naples and the day is done there and back without changing hotel.
The recommended group is 15 people: it is the size that reaches the group rates without going over the access limits of the visits, which at these sites go up to 25. Above 20 the itinerary splits into two slots, the day gets longer and the cost per person does not go down. On the Consortium's open-doors days the places are limited by the organizers and not by us: you book as soon as the dates are out.
Cover
The program includes an accident and public liability policy for the whole stay. The sums insured, the insurer and the policy number are published once it is taken out and are attached to the contract; until then they can be requested in writing, with an answer within two working days.
Do you want it to count as training, with a certificate? This experience can be built into an Istituto program, with classroom hours, a piece of work to deliver and a certificate of attendance. → For groups
Related experiences
The same question, two answers (7 days) · Who comes next (4 days) · Two supply chains, one plain (4 days)
Let us talk about this route
We answer within two working days with the dates, the day by day program and the quotation.