From the Aisle to the Valle is a project that celebrates an experience the team had in their first month arriving in Bergamo: a guided visit to CIID’s neighbor, Valle della Biodiversità, a botanic garden and biodiversity museum. Inspired by the garden’s mission to educate the people of Bergamo about where their food comes from, this project seeks to take people from the aisles of the grocery stores of Bergamo and bring them into the Valle to experience the entire lifecycle of their food and reconnect with nature.
The designed experience begins in the grocery store. Shoppers receive a “passport” pamphlet upon arriving at the store. Throughout the produce aisle, shoppers may press buttons in front of various foods local to Bergamo, which will display information about that food on a screen behind the produce: what it looks like as a seed and as a mature plant, as well as where the shopper could visit locally to see the plant – for example, Valle della Biodiversità. The display also shows directions to the garden from the grocery store and upcoming events that might be of interest.
If the shopper visits Valle della Biodiversità, bringing along their “passport”, they will receive a tour of the garden, and receive stamps on their “passport” corresponding to which fruits/vegetables they were able to see at the garden. In this way, From the Aisle to the Valle reconnects Bergamo residents with the wonder of the natural world, fostering a greater understanding of and appreciation for the origins of their food.
