Sad day

If you’ve visited us in Florence, you probably remember our morning routine. In the morning we go out for cappuccino, stop at the Pagnotta bakery for bread and biscotti, and then shop for fruit and vegetables, cheeses and cold cuts at the Sant’Ambrogio market. It’s a pleasant routine and we’ve made good friends at each of these stops over the last 12 years.

The bakery is the work of two sisters and their father. Sadly, their father became ill recently and died last Thursday afternoon. On Saturday the funeral service was held in the Sant’Ambrogio church across the little piazza from their bakery. The church has been in this location for a thousand years.

The steps to Sant'Ambrogio church on Sunday morning
with the Pagnotta bakery across the little piazza

There were no calling hours (and Italians may not have such a custom.) The funeral mass was set for 4pm. Family and friends, however, arrived before the service and greeted one another. Condolences were offered to the sisters in the piazza in front of the church and, later, in the church. The scene inside the church was a mostly a social scene until the church bells rang. The collection of friends and family quickly became a congregation as the priest and his assistants lead a mass.

The ceremony was less ritualistic and more personal that we thought it might be. The priest celebrated the life of the master baker and the kind and generous way in which he lived his life. The congregation was well aware of the life of the baker since the congregants were all either family or people who lived or worked within a quarter mile of the church and the bakery that stand across from each other on the small piazza.

Afterwards we waited in the piazza as pall bearers placed the coffin in a hearse and the sisters said good-bye.

It was a sad day.

Riposa in pace, Giancarlo.

Saturday night the same little piazza held the overflow from the popular bar and club that is also in the little piazza. Life goes on.