The new Pane e Panettieri d'Italia guide by Gambero Rosso: stories of those who bake outside the system

“Produce, consume, die,” sang Giovanni Lindo Ferretti of CCCP. What does that have to do with a guide to the best Italian bread? Everything. Many of the bakers featured in the Pane e Panettieri d’Italia 2026 guide by Gambero Rosso (available at newsstands, bookstores and online) have questioned today’s societal model. They have shown the courage to change course, guided by new ideas and different social references. “What could be more unconventional than choosing, of your own accord, to close one extra day a week so you can live your life better?” asks Alice Bernardi of Filonificio. She, like many of her peers, is changing not only the way a product as ancient as bread is made, but is also showing that bread can be a means to challenge how we perceive and approach daily work.

Bread by LePolveri in Milano

Bread is politics

Opening hours change, loaves are pre-ordered to reduce waste and manage work more efficiently, bread is sold at fair prices, and day-old bread is celebrated – think of Pane al Quadrato by Aurora Zancanaro, made with semi-wholegrain flour and reclaimed stale bread, or the work on aged bread being developed by Davide Longoni, who will also be featured in the July issue of Gambero Rosso.

In short, bread is political. Bread is politics. To quote Lorenza Roiati, who was unfortunately the centre of a very unpleasant incident, “Making bread is the most political act there is.” Gabriele Bonci has said this for years – even at the launch of the most recent Roma guide, extending the idea to the maritozzo: “Like 90% of the things I do, my maritozzo is also a political creation.” And he’s not alone – countless bakers and pastry chefs, day after day, loaf after loaf, prove that another world is possible.

It’s been seven years since we decided to dedicate a guide to Italian bread and bakers. Seven years during which the sector has made huge strides. And never more so than this year, bread has demonstrated its interdisciplinary power.

The *pane cunzato* from Frangipane Forno e Cucina in Milazzo

Another world is possible – special awards prove it

It’s no coincidence that this year’s Pane e Territorio Award goes to Il Forno di San Leo in the province of Rimini, which came back to life a few years ago thanks to the community cooperative Fermenti Leontine, formed by local residents to keep the village alive and prevent depopulation. It’s a community-based project built on short supply chains, minimally refined flours, and high-quality artisanal products.

Or that Bread of the Year (specifically the monumental pane cunzato) goes to Antonio Palana, who left a steady job as a railway worker – after consulting with Valeria Messina of Forno Biancuccia, who shares a similar story – to open Frangipane Forno e Cucina in Milazzo, together with his partner Michela Di Rubbo.

These are stories of resistance and transformation that make it virtually impossible to talk only about bread as a “material heritage,” because this guide also chronicles a living intangible heritage – one that transforms and evolves.

Bread by Tocio in Noale

This doesn’t mean we should lose the material heritage of the past – in fact, this year we’ve created a new award for Pane Tipico, which went to Panequaglia in Sant’Urbano (province of Padua), a guardian of the traditional small-format loaves of Veneto. But it does mean looking ahead to the future, with awareness and in line with how people’s tastes and habits are evolving.

As Emerging Baker Chiara Regattieri of Tipo Due Forno Contemporaneo in Mantua puts it: “Customers get bored easily and expect an ever-changing offer, perhaps because of the variety they find in supermarkets. So in our contemporary bakery, we offer traditional formats but always with different pairings and combinations. One must realise that, in a time when everything changes so quickly, we need to adapt.”

And the guide adapts too. That’s why, for instance, alongside the award for traditional breads, there is also one for Bakery of the Year, which goes to Coce in Parma – opened by a young couple, baker Giuseppe Mazzocca and pastry chef Chiara Masino. They’ve embraced the microbakery wave – partly due to limited initial investment aligned with their financial means, and partly to maintain close, direct contact with their customers.

Customers, despite what some might think, are very open to dialogue and happy to chat with the people who make their bread. Just ask Giulia Busato, a new Tre Pani winner – along with Farina del Mio Sacco in Atessa and Panetteria Ribotta in Barge – who, beyond baking, spends much of her time educating the people who walk into her microbakery in Noale.

Discover all the bakeries awarded with the Tre Pani 2026, region by region

 

The Pane e Panettieri d’Italia guide by Gambero Rosso is produced in collaboration with