In 1940 Riccardo Barilla commissioned a ‘bird’s eye view’ from Aerostudio Borghi of Como of the Via Veneto (today Viale Barilla) factory in Parma. The view is a huge plate (80 x 170 cm) now held in the company’s archive that documents the phase of greatest expansion before World War II; it is typical of the 19th century landscape views that became popular following the invention of the balloon.