Emanuela Tommolini

Born on 27 June 1979 in San Benedetto del Tronto, I live just a few kilometres further south, just into the neighbouring region, in Martinsicuro, a small place in the province of Teramo, on the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region - where I spent my childhood.

At that time, my parents opened ´Il Sestante´, a seaside restaurant where fish was the speciality. The restaurant was an immediate hit, going on to become one of the biggest names in Abruzzo, and they ran it successfully for almost twenty years.

 I decided to enrol in the Communication Sciences Faculty at the University of Bologna. In March 2004, I managed to graduate in Communication Sciences from the Philosophy and Arts Faculty at the University of Bologna.

In 2006, I returned to Abruzzo to become a member of the Regional Scientific Committee for the granting of public funds to culture. In addition, the Regional Government entrusted me with the writing of a White Paper on the entertainment industry in Abruzzo. My wish is to live immersed in the countryside in this region and I decided to buy a house in the old village of Colonella, in the province of Teramo.

I realised that Abruzzo did not offer many opportunities for my profession and I began to consider alternative ideas - otherwise I would have had to leave again.

  My chance came with a course organised by the Regional Government on the creation of businesses which was aimed at young people. I decided to participate in the course which could provide me with ideas for my future.

On 9 February 2010, the ´Osteria Esprì´ opened its doors. Initially, things were quite complicated. In February 2014, I received the ´Identità Donna´  Prize at the ´Identità Golose´ International Cooking Conference as a result of the sensitivity of Paolo Marchi, its founder.

 2015 was characterised by two other key events: the first of these was an objective I had pursued for five years - at the beginning of the year ´Esprì´ became a 100% vegetarian restaurant; in fact, we have removed the last remaining meat and fish dishes from the menu. The second was that in March 2015, we joined the prestigious ‘Jeunes Restaurateurs d´Europe’ association. We are the second vegetarian restaurant to join the group, following the ´Joia´ in Milan.
Now, after much mistrust and initial sabotage by many and the difficulties in making a name for itself, ´Esprì´ is a reality with enormous personality, the result of taking brave decisions and never backing down.