This corner of EPCOT’s world was almost much larger…
EPCOT’s World Showcase is one of the most beloved areas of Walt Disney World. The meticulously detailed pavilions allow guests to take a mini-trip around the world, offering food, drinks, attractions, and souvenirs that help spread cultural awareness. However, as great as World Showcase is, many EPCOT aficionados will always lament that it could have been better. Over the years, there have been many additions, attractions, and EVEN whole countries that went unbuilt.
Of all of EPCOT’s country pavilions that were actually built, there’s perhaps none that felt “unfinished” longer than Italy.
On opening day in 1982, the Italy Pavilion certainly had many positive things going for it. The beautiful architecture features allusions to many famous Italian landmarks including of Venetian, Florentine, and Roman architecture. These include a replica of St Mark’s Campanile (bell tower), a replica of the Doge’s Palace, the Columns of San Marco and San Todaro, the Ponte della Paglia and the Neptune Fountain which is reminiscent of Rome’s Trevi Fountain.
However, it also featured a very strange feature: the land ended at a…random fence. That wasn’t always supposed to be the case, however. Original plans for the Italian Pavilion called for a Gondola-based dark ride, a massive “walkthrough of Roman ruins”, a second restaurant, and further shopping. In fact, this larger version of the land can be seen in the original Imagineering model of World Showcase.
However, like many EPCOT projects, the park’s MASSIVE budget overruns led to this half of the Italian Pavilion being pushed back to EPCOT’s second phase of construction — joining the likes of the Rhine River Cruise in Germany, an attraction in Japan, and the Equatorial Africa Pavilion among others. As Disney struggled to recover from EPCOT’s budget overruns, as well as other financial factors that would eventually lead to Michael Eisner and Frank Wells taking control of the company, many of these EPCOT Phase II projects were abandoned, including the completion of the Italy Pavilion.
The portion of Italy that was earmarked for Phase II remained behind a fence for almost 30 years, before it was opened in 2010 and headlined by the Via Napoli restaurant.
Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria Restaurant
Services: Table Service
Unfortunately, however, it seems highly unlikely that Disney will ever add the originally planned dark ride to EPCOT, leaving only decorative Venitian elements in EPCOT.
The plans for EPCOT’s Italy Pavilion were once much larger than what was actually built. Stay tuned to AllEars for more history of unbuilt Disney attractions.
The Four Biggest Mistakes in EPCOT’s World Showcase
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Do you wish the Italy Pavilion had been built as originally planned? Let us know in the comments below.
It’s not surprising that the small addition to the Italy Pavilion was Via Napoli. After all, an attraction is all cost, no revenue. (Attractions only bring in revenue if they bring new people to the parks, which the proposed Italy rides probably wouldn’t.) A restaurant, however, gives the park another venue to make money.