H. Giombelli Bakery

Audio narration by eArsH. Giombelli Bakery (Romina Penazzato RP)Narrator: Not everything from the distant past is lost forever or locked away behind glass in a museum.Would you like to sample the same kind of bread that the ancient Romans once did?We’re not offering a 2,000-year-old loaf—those are safely preserved in the museum!This is a recipe that has been faithfully recreated by baker Claudio Giombelli, and the results are still sold in this bakery every Thursday and Saturday.Let’s hear more from Romina Penazzato, Claudio’s wife, who works here every day.RP: “It all started in 2015, when Cristina Miedico, curator of the Civic Archaeological Museum of Angera, and Valeria Baietti, councillor for the Municipality of Angera, asked my husband, along with the chef Claudio Mei Tomasi, to recreate the types of bread from Roman times that had been found in Angera’s necropolis.Traditionally, loaves of bread were left in the tombs of the dead.Some of those loaves were preserved and, by analyzing them in the laboratory, it was possible to identify the original ingredients.The bread from ancient Angera was made with stone-ground wholemeal spelt and wheat flour, along with brewer’s yeast and extra virgin olive oil. There were three main shapes.The first was the Quadratus—a round loaf, marked with a cross in the center, which makes it easy to break apart and is seen as a symbol of sharing.Then there’s the Treccina, a braided loaf that reflected the pursuit of beauty—even at the table. And finally, the Tazìna or ‘little cup’, a ring-shaped loaf like a small bowl, used to hold soups or sauces. Today, we produce the Quadratus and the Treccia using stone-ground flours, simple tools, and plenty of skilled handiwork, in order to recreate a bread very similar to that of 2,000 years ago.In that way, we can offer a bread that is as close as possible to the original. It has earned the designation of Denominazione Comunale di Origine, the local certification of quality and origin. We are truly proud of the success of this beautiful project, and honored to offer our customers a bread with such a rich and historic flavour.”