There is a precise spot on the right shore of Lake Zurich where, for over twenty-four years, Italy is not a promise but a certainty. It is the Ristorante Fiorello in Erlenbach, at Seestrasse 83, managed with passion and artisanal care by Giuseppe Serra. On Saturday, June 6, 2026, at 8:00 PM, that point on the Zurich coast will be transformed into a little Italy in concert: the Fiorello will indeed host Franco's Zero, the tribute to Renato Zero that is making waves in Italy and that arrives in Switzerland for a single date.
Even before the concert, it is the setting that makes the difference. Ristorante Fiorello is one of those places where Italianità is not a menu label but a way of welcoming. Giuseppe Serra, passionate restaurateur, has built over the years a proposal that intertwines North and South Italy: homemade pasta, pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven, meat and fish dishes, a well-stocked private wine cellar that is a small journey through the best wineries of the peninsula.
The location, just meters from the lake, offers a shaded terrace that in summer becomes one of the most pleasant outdoor spaces in the canton of Zurich, with fifty covers facing the water. The Best Pizza Restaurant Guru 2023 recognition confirms what regulars have long known: at Fiorello you come for consistent quality, for sensible prices for the Zurich market and for that warmth that only certain Italian restaurants in Switzerland can convey. Wheelchair accessible and family-friendly, the restaurant has been for years a reference for the Italian community of the Goldküste and for Swiss in love with the cuisine of the Belpaese.
It is in this context, made of care and welcome, that Giuseppe Serra has chosen to bring a great name of the Italian tribute scene for a special evening.
The protagonist of the evening is Maestro Franco, pizzaiolo from Battipaglia in the province of Salerno, owner of Franco's Pizza, a place famous in Campania for the panuozzo and now known throughout Italy for the extraordinary vocal and scenic resemblance of its owner with Renato Zero. A passion cultivated for a lifetime, which recently led him to the stage of Casa Sanremo Live Box 2025, where he was interviewed during the Festival week.
In that interview, Franco told his story with the simplicity that distinguishes him. Asked who he was and where he came from, he replied with the naturalness of one who does not separate work from art: "I am a maestro pizzaiolo. Franco's Pizza, I come from Battipaglia." Sixty-three years old, a large family with three children, Virgilio, Giorgio and Anna Avoria, and grandchildren who today are his biggest dream. "At this age my dream is family," he confided to the microphones of Casa Sanremo.
On music, Franco has no doubts: "I am from the old generation. I really like, first of all Renato Zero, because I sing him, and then all the legends: Baglioni, Ranieri, Celentano." Sanremo, he said, he has always followed on TV, and he has been there in person only once, "in a groom's suit, on September 18, 1983." A detail that says a lot about the character: a man who lives music as part of his own personal history, not as a stage. For about a year and a half he has been studying singing with vocal coach Carmen Scognamiglio, a sign of a commitment that continues to grow.
The subtitle that accompanies the Franco's Zero logo, "Silenzio che lo sguardo tuo parla per te (Sorry seems to be the hardest word)," sums up the show's signature well: not an imitation, but a tribute built on mimicry, theatricality and a repertoire that spans the entire career of the Roman singer-songwriter, from intimate ballads to tracks that have made generations dance.
There is a detail that makes this evening particularly precious for the many Renato Zero fans living in Switzerland. Renato Zero has never performed abroad: in over fifty years of career and with more than fifty-five million records sold, the Roman singer-songwriter has always chosen to remain faithful to the Italian audience, taking his tours exclusively to the cities of the peninsula. The "sorcini," as his most devoted fans call themselves, know well that to see him live you have to travel to Rome, Milan, Naples or Florence.
Precisely for this reason the Erlenbach appointment takes on a special meaning for those who, in Switzerland, grew up with Renato's songs. An evening to relive Cercami, Il cielo, I migliori anni della nostra vita, Spiagge, Triangolo and all the other tracks that have marked Italian popular culture, interpreted by a voice that resembles his in a surprising way. For many Italian emigrants of the Goldküste it will be the very first time of a concert entirely dedicated to the Renato repertoire within reach, without having to take a plane or train to Milan.
Maestro Franco does not arrive in Switzerland empty-handed. For the occasion, Ristorante Fiorello and Franco's Pizza will together present a specialty designed specifically for the evening: the Panuozzo Marsicovetere, a special version of the famous pizza-sandwich from Battipaglia filled with Prosciutto di Marsicovetere, Slow Food Italia Presidio, and Mozzarella di Bufala from Battipaglia.
The prosciutto di Marsicovetere is a small excellence of Basilicata, produced in the homonymous municipality of Val d'Agri according to ancient curing techniques, recognized by Slow Food for its value in safeguarding an artisanal supply chain at risk of disappearance. Pairing it with Campanian buffalo mozzarella means bringing to the Swiss table a perfect dialogue between two regions of Southern Italy, inside a panuozzo that is in itself a small jewel of the Campanian tradition.
What makes the evening even more special is an institutional presence that tells the bond between the product and its land better than any description: indeed, the Mayor of Marsicovetere, Marco Zippari, will be a guest at the Fiorello, the first citizen of the small Lucanian municipality of Val d'Agri from which the Slow Food Presidio prosciutto, protagonist of the menu, comes.
The Mayor's presence takes on a particular value in 2026: Marsicovetere has in fact been proclaimed by the European Commission European Capital of Inclusion and Diversity 2026 for the category of municipalities up to 50,000 inhabitants, recognition obtained thanks to the direct vote of European citizens. A small village of just over five thousand inhabitants that has managed to impose itself on a continental scale for its model of social cohesion, and which now brings to Erlenbach a piece of its history, its cuisine and its pride.
The meeting between Mayor Zippari, Maestro Franco and host Giuseppe Serra makes the evening of June 6 something more than a concert: a small bridge between Basilicata, Campania and the Italian community of the canton of Zurich, built around a set table and a guitar.
To complete the program, the participation of realities that have long accompanied Maestro Franco in his projects: the Lucanian winery Tenuta del Castello with its "timeless" wines, the wine shop Solo Vino and the photographic studio Click Production by Francesco Bianco.
Franco's Zero's concert is scheduled for Saturday, June 6, 2026 at 8:00 PM at Ristorante Fiorello, at Seestrasse 83 in 8703 Erlenbach, on Lake Zurich. Admission is 25 francs, and it is the only Swiss stop of the project.
Given the limited seats in the hall and on the terrace, and considering the special menu prepared for the evening, reservation is strongly recommended. Tickets are available online at www.ticketino.ch, or directly at the restaurant by calling 044 910 73 33 or writing to restaurant.fiorello@sunrise.ch. For those who do not yet know the place, the official website is restaurantfiorello.ch.
For Italians in the canton of Zurich, and for those who love Renato Zero's music, it is an opportunity that unites two pleasures rarely offered together: hearing live the repertoire of one of the greatest Italian singer-songwriters and dining in a restaurant that has been telling Italy with authenticity for years. A small one-evening journey from Lake Zurich to Southern Italy, without leaving Erlenbach.
