At 79 years old, Angelo Arrigoni has spent a lifetime dedicated to bread-making. From a young age, he watched his grandmother and his father serve a very special customer who lived in the Vatican.
ANGELO ARRIGONI
Baker
In 1930, we started serving the popes with Pius XI. A trusted person from the Vatican would come with a locked briefcase, as if it were a chest. My grandmother or my father had the key, so they would open it, put the bread in and take it to the pope's house.
For 93 years this Roman bakery, located near the Vatican, has been serving the popes—each one with a very particular taste.
ANGELO ARRIGONI
Baker
With Pius XI, I was not born, but with Pius XII, I was very young, I remember that he liked oil bread, which at that time was horseradish bread. John XXIII used to have small biscotti and sandwiches.
Arrigoni's first meeting with a pope was with John XXIII.
ANGELO ARRIGONI
Baker
The nuns opened the door for me, I gave them the bread and, as I was walking down the corridor, the Pope saw me. The nuns said to me: “The Holy Father wants to talk to you.” When I returned to the bakery, my father said to me: “You took so long! Hurry up, you have to go to school.” And I answered: “Dad, I have been talking to the Holy Father.” I don't remember the conversation with the Pope because I was so excited.
He also remembers Pope Benedict XVI because he went to buy bread when he was a cardinal.
ANGELO ARRIGONI
Baker
Ratzinger used to come here when he was a cardinal, but I didn't know he was a cardinal because he came in normal clothes. He came once a week and took his bread with him.
When Francis was elected pope, Arrigoni sent him a type of bread that reminded him of home.
ANGELO ARRIGONI
Baker
When I heard that the new pope was coming from Argentina, I immediately inquired with Argentines who live here to find out what kind of bread is made there. I set out to do so, but Francis replied that any bread would do, that he did not want one made exclusively for him.
The Bakery of the Popes is now closing its doors due to the lack of finances to maintain the business.
The Vatican is not the only one that will feel its absense. The Roman residents of Borgo Pio will also miss Angelo Arrigona's historic bread.
CA/KG/AA
