By Giulia Scarpaleggia S.forno is a cozy bakery with vintage, bohemian vibes that’s located in Oltrarno, one of the most authentic neighborhoods of Firenze (Florence), Italy, not far from the Arno River.It’s been a forno, a neighborhood bakery, for more than 100 years.Angelo, a local baker, baked bread there every morning for 40 years until 2014, when he sold the bakery to Il Santo Bevitore, a restaurant a couple of minutes away from the bakery, for which he was already baking bread.

It was Angelo who passed down his skills to Rose Hélène Govoni, who’s now the head baker at S.forno.From the outside, S.forno is still the same shop, a humble bakery whose entrance door is crowned by the original sign, panificio, dating back to the 1970s.Inside, they kept the original cotto tiles and vaulted ceilings and furnished the bakery with vintage elements: a butcher’s counter, a goldsmith’s octagonal table, bookshelves and stools with a patina of age, and a school blackboard where you can read the daily specials.

photogrpahy by Joann PaiJust behind the counter, the bread loaves are neatly arranged in baskets and on shelves, their shades and textures a pleasure for the eye.Here, you can find the flagship product of Tuscan gastronomy, pane sciocco, a white, crusty country loaf traditionally baked without salt, a bread that marries the local cheese and charcu

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