People say that individuals with "handicaps" are "special"; but what about their families? We families of young people with handicaps would never have found the time — so scarce these days — to start an association, organize classes and activities, create celebrations and opportunities to meet one another and with other families and friends, if our children hadn't given us "special" resources to draw on!
Who but families sustained by a "special" kind of hope would have dreamed of launching a restaurant training program, involving other parents, building enthusiasm around a bold new project, and then taking the leap together with their children: opening a restaurant that was, quite deliberately, "special"?
Now we want to tell you how we did it, thanking God for the strength he gave us to do something extraordinary.
It all began in 2003 when Sipario, a nonprofit association, was born. We were a group of friends, all parents — some with intellectually disabled children, others without — and we shared a single vision grounded in real need: to improve the "quality of life" of young people with handicaps and their families, with an eye toward their future.
Those are fine words, easy to say. But we didn't want to stop at promoting an abstract culture where every person has equal dignity and each person's role is woven into the fabric of others. We wanted to make it actually possible. We wanted to answer concretely the question that haunted us all: "What will become of our children?"
We got to work immediately, organizing classes of all kinds — golf, theater, painting, music. (For a full picture, visit our website at associazionesipario.it.) Everything was aimed at a single shared goal: "the future of our children." We watched them take pleasure in the various activities, rushing to get to Tuesday for theater with Riccardo, our legendary director, or Wednesday for golf with maestro Fabrizio.
The watchword was simple: have fun, feel good together. And the thread running through all these activities was the same: build a group. Right away, the young people began calling themselves and each other "The Sipario Kids." They are a group. They belong to a group. Each one of them matters to the others. Together, they are a force. They are friends.
And as friends, they've already taken two week-long seaside vacations together, with educators and — most importantly — without parents. For some it was a first experience. For others it wasn't. For all of them it was an adventure they want to repeat. And the wait until the next trip is already hard to bear!
Slowly, the small seed began to grow into a sapling. But we felt it needed roots to flourish — roots in the soil of real independence. The question of "AfterUs — DuringUs" had been on our minds for a long time. Parents of the older young people especially understood the importance of real employment. They wanted their children to use not only the professional skills some had learned or were learning at hospitality school, but also the human warmth and connection all our young people could bring to relationships with others. This is how the "Hospitality Training & Beyond" project was born — a project that would soon open doors to a genuinely different future.
The next step was to move from "restaurant training" to "restaurant work." We had to commit ourselves completely to supporting and creating a type-B social cooperative focused on hospitality. We had to give a concrete answer to the question we all carried: how can we create real work for people labeled "differently able"?
But as the saying goes, there's many a slip between the cup and the lip. And in Italy, bureaucracy is not easy — that's not a cliché, it's the truth.
We began making the rounds of offices. You think you've gathered all the information you need to set up a type-B social cooperative, and then some official mentions a detail no one else ever told you about. You ask for clarification elsewhere and get conflicting answers. Everyone offers advice. No one has a clear grasp of the regulations. So you start over. Again. And again. Until you're exhausted. But remember — we are "special," like our children. And so we persisted. We persisted because in the meantime we found the perfect place: the MCL Circle at the Artigianelli. It was ideal for us. The people there believed in the project and gave us the space to work with. (Thank God something went right.)
In the end, we had to go to a notary. That's when we hit a wall and lost months of time. No one explained that it's easy to set up a type-B cooperative if the members are people with physical disabilities, or migrants, or former addicts, or formerly incarcerated people. But if your members have intellectual disabilities and are legally deemed unable to understand and intend their actions, you can't execute any official document. We felt we'd landed in hell itself, until we found a woman notary — a remarkable person — who explained that the only way forward was for the young people with disabilities to have a legal guardian or supporter already appointed by the court.
It was a calvary. But we held firm because we knew that if the roots were deep and strong, thanks to the cooperative, work in the world would become a fruit-bearing tree. It would give families hope for their children's future.
What the restaurant has taught us confirms we made the right choice: a child with intellectual disability needs to work. Work sustains them economically. Work strengthens self-esteem. And work gives them a place in the community, a chance to interact with others and contribute to something larger than themselves.
Creating a workplace that was welcoming — both professionally and as human beings — was a challenge within the challenge we embraced.
Work and disability: The young people of Sipario Restaurant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRb_Myq0nOk
When a customer opens the restaurant door, they receive a clear message: we are ending the age of charity and pity; we are ending the view of disabled people as passive objects of good will. We are disabled, and we demand to be — and will be — full citizens with equal dignity, rights, and opportunities. We broadcast this message far beyond the restaurant itself. On November 19, 2007, every newspaper in Florence ran the headline: "First Restaurant Entirely Run by Young People with Intellectual Disabilities Opens in Florence." President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano even cited the "Sipario Kids" restaurant in his address at the Quirinal Palace on December 3, 2007, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, as a model of genuine labor integration.
At the Sipario Kids restaurant on Via dei Serragli 104 in Florence, seventeen young people with disabilities are at work right now. Three are cooperative members; the others are in apprenticeships, in therapeutic-social placement programs, or gaining on-the-job experience while still in school. They work in two teams — one in the kitchen, one in the dining room — supported by two professional educators (Marzio and Paolo), plus Fabiana the chef. They offer their hospitality to everyone who wants to eat well, pay fairly, and above all, never take anything for granted.
The restaurant opens Monday through Friday for lunch from noon to 2:30 p.m. Dinner events are themed, by invitation and reservation.
The restaurant itself is simple. When you walk in, you feel at home. You'll find traditional Tuscan food — real Tuscan cooking, made not just with flavors but with warmth, human kindness, and genuine welcome. These elements make eating together a pleasure and open new possibilities for connection and community.
Is this the wildly ambitious project people called it?
Honestly, we don't think of ourselves as ambitious. The goal is high, certainly, but not ambitious — rather difficult, hard, exhausting. It challenges what people assume. We've embraced that challenge, and we've already won much of it. You can see it in the eyes of the families. You can see it when their children leave in the morning and come home in the evening "tired, but satisfied" — satisfied like anyone is after a hard day's work.
We are fulfilled, even if sometimes tired. We are grateful for everything that has been built from 2003 to now. And since neither Sipario nor the cooperative receives any government funding, we must say this clearly: we are deeply grateful to the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation of Florence and to all the generous people who support us financially and spiritually. We could not do this without them.
We want to end with the image of the tree, remembering Gandhi's words: "A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest." We believe that good noise should be made about what we are building — a message of hope. It is possible to be extraordinary. You simply have to overcome fear. You have to trust and believe in your children's potential and in your own. You have to let your creativity run free. The young people, for their part, give everything they have. They show us again and again that they have the energy and the will to succeed.
Marco Martelli Calvelli, 2009
President of the Cooperative