![\"Rome's](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2023-07\/fd9dgj9g_popes-bread-shop_625x300_07_July_23.jpg\"\/ "\\"Rome's")
<\/div>\nMass tourism has proved deadly for the bakery that catered to Popes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rome: <\/b><\/p>\n
The Arrigoni bakery has made bread for Popes for almost a century, from rosetta rolls to wholewheat loaves — but mass tourism has proved deadly and no prayers can save it now.<\/p>\n
“We turned the oven off on Tuesday,” said Angelo Arrigoni, 79, whose father opened the little shop in 1930 during Pius XI’s papacy, and who would hand-deliver bread to the papal household.<\/p>\n
Each time a new head of the Catholic Church was elected, the “Panificio Arrigoni” on Borgo Pio, just a five-minute walk from St Peter’s Square, would get ready to cater to the new Pope’s tastes.<\/p>\n
Polish Pope John Paul II, elected in 1978, “said he wanted the bread his workers ate”, Arrigoni said.<\/p>\n
“The workers ate both the ‘ciriola’, that big, classic Roman loaf that hardly anyone makes anymore, and rosetta rolls,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n
“So for his whole papacy, which lasted almost 27 years, we gave him five ‘ciriola’ and five rosetta rolls.”<\/p>\n
When his successor Benedict XVI was elected, Arrigoni rang the papal household but was told by a nun that the new German Pope would be sticking with the baker he frequented as a cardinal.<\/p>\n
“But I am that baker!” he told her, for Benedict had already been getting cheese and unleavened bread from him as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.<\/p>\n
‘Piece of history’<\/strong><\/p>\n Pope Francis has also been served by Arrigoni — but will now need to look elsewhere for his daily bread, after the baker found himself squeezed by a drop in loyal local customers and steep energy prices.<\/p>\n “The district has changed,” he said.<\/p>\n “All the houses that used to be full of people have become rentals for tourists,” most of whom do not do a daily shop for basics, but prefer to eat out in the Eternal City’s restaurants. Tourist guide Francesca Pantusa took her time eating her last sandwich, prepared with care by Arrigoni.<\/p>\n “In Borgo Pio, there are only tourist restaurants… whereas here you can find good products, at the right price and with Angelo who is incredible — kind, friendly… it makes me want to cry”, she said.<\/p>\n The bakery stood out on the street, particularly for the lack of tourist-friendly tables outside — a sore subject with Arrigoni, after he tried and failed to convince the council to give him permission.<\/p>\n Vatican reporter Iacopo Scaramuzzi slammed the council on Twitter, asking why a city “drunk with nostalgia was unable to preserve its heritage” and save “the Popes’ baker… a piece of Vatican history”.<\/p>\n (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
News that the premises have been sold has saddened Arrigoni’s remaining regular customers.<\/p>\n