Intervening in one’s own neighborhood to redevelop it, creating a virtuous example of synergy between public and private and offering both citizens and travelers arriving in Catania a complete experience of hospitality and beauty: with this idea the chef Alessandro Ingiulla of the Sapio Restaurant has decided to invest in the new redevelopment project of Piazza Antonino Gandolfo, where the restaurant moved its headquarters last July, giving the neighborhood a new space to experience. The project, like that of the restaurant, is signed by the architect Daniele Ingiulla, brother of Alessandro, who was inspired by the rules of tactical urbanism to generate a sustainable redevelopment intervention: “We worked on the existing fabric of the square – explains Daniele Ingiulla – modifying its destination and aesthetic appearance and thus rescuing it from abandonment and decay . The architectural theme is that of intertwining, the same that distinguishes art and culture, the baroque on the one hand and the roots of the maritime tradition on the other which have coexisted and mixed together for centuries along via Antonino di Sangiuliano. A street that seems to develop like a real route that starts from the sea up to the heart of the historic center of Catania: a path along which you can grasp the entire essence of the city”.
“In recent years – explains chef Alessandro Ingiulla – we have been involved in the complete redevelopment of the building that now houses Sapio, where our restaurant has finally found a home and where this summer we will also inaugurate a small guesthouse. Now the desire is that this redevelopment has a visible impact on the neighborhood and serves, why not, as an example and driving force for other private initiatives that can always be started from the bottom. We dedicate this investment, as a small action of social responsibility, to the search and sharing of beauty, as we always do in our work.” The same principle inspires another project, kept in this case inside the room and the cellar of the restaurant, which sees the alternation from season to season of an artist who offers his works to the gaze of the guests, as inside a small gallery, always in dialogue with the principle of “aesthetics of taste” that inspires the philosophy of the starred restaurant.
Precisely coinciding with the external opening of the new square, these days the works of The City On The Water by Giancarlo Leonewhich have accompanied the experience of Sapio guests since the inauguration of the new headquarters, with those of the artist Enzo Tomasello, which will remain on display until the end of the summer.
