Bakeries will be allowed to open for business on Sundays, says Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti
In a symbolic gesture aimed at securing the continued backing of the Italians, the government has decreed that bakeries will no longer be prohibited from operating on Sundays. The ban is lifted as part of the fight against privileges and red tape instituted by the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti.
Last Friday, the 27th of January, the Italian Council of ministers met a Pallazo Chigi in Rome. Inside five hours a spectacular catalogue of “simplifications” were put forward and implemented in the form of decrees.
The catalogue – the third in a row – is interesting in so far as it gives a precise picture of the bureaucracy currently hampering Italy. It even goes as far as stating that the primary object of some of the red tape has been to create lucrative possibilities for corruption, e.g. in the agricultural sector.
If for instance in the future an Italian, who wants to move or set up shop, is hampered by red tape, he is given the opportunity to direct a complaint at another official, who is then personally held responsible for the delay caused by the primary bureaucrat, who originally caused the problem. An important part of this is supposed to happen through the creation of a number of digital platforms, where ordinary people are invited to contribute with complaints as well as creative and practical solutions
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Of course the Italian government acknowledges that the whole endeavour – Simplifying Italy – will be fraught with delays and obstruction from the traditional lobbies and cartels. But as repeatedly has been voiced by Mario Monti: He and his government are not reined in by any political ambition of re-election.
Somewhat peculiar is one of the decrees, which concerns the opening hours of the bakeries on Sundays and holidays. Nevertheless this has quickly become a poignant symbol for the whole process – “Semplifica Italia” . The hope is, claims the Minister, that this decree (and more like it) will spur competition in the market. For the tourist it may be thought to be about securing fresh bread at breakfast at the Italian hotels instead of the proverbial dry biscuits traditionally served before Sunday mass, for those who cannot wait until lunch to break the fast. So far the Catholic Church has not intervened…
More seems however to be at stake. As is well-known Italian bread is more than serious business. Traditionally in the South each village had one bakery. As many Italians were forbidden to bake their own bread, they were obliged to knead their own dough, stamp it with their initials and deliver it to the local privileged bakery. Transgressing the law might result in a huge fine. Elsewhere baking of the bread was done at home; but due to the heavy workload of heating the oven and kneading the dough it was an important communal activity, which was shared by neighbors and family members. Up until 2006 people who wanted to set up a bakery had to get a permit from central authorities in Rome. No wonder the new decree about bakeries and their privileges have gained such symbolic value.
For the tourist, however, this might end up as a raw deal. One of the results of this particular tradition has of course been, that not only each region, but also each village ended up brandishing their own special type of bread. Today, the more famous are the Lombardian Rosetta, which may be had everywhere, and the Pane Toscano or Pane Umbro devoid of salt. Probably less well known is the fact that four types of bread have achieved the European designation, PDO. Of these the most famous is without doubt “Pane di Altamura” staking its claim to be the bread famed by the poet Horace in one of his satires:
Next rise to view Apulia’s well-known heights,
Which keen Atabulus so sorely bites:
And there perchance we might be wandering yet,
But shelter in Trivicum’s town we get,
Where green damp branches in the fireplace spread
Make our poor eyes to water in our head.
Then four and twenty miles, a good long way,
Our coaches take us, in a town to stay
Whose name no art can squeeze into a line,
Though otherwise ’tis easy to define:
For water there, the cheapest thing on earth,
Is sold for money: but the bread is worth
A fancy price, and travellers who know
Their business take it with them when they go:
For at Canusium, town of Diomed,
The drink’s as bad, and grits are in the bread.
(Horace, Satire 5 – Translated by John Conington)
In times of austerity it is no less than a political genius, who promises people if not circus, then at least bread! Whether an opening of the market will result in a deterioration of the many local types of bread is another matter. According to some local associations organizing traditional bakers the market has however already for a long time been swamped with bland imports from Eastern Europe “dressed up” like homemade bread. “Citta del Pane” is one of the organizations, which represents the local, traditional bakeries. On the 30th of January they sent a delegation to Rome in order to ask for more rather than less protection.
Read the booklet on “Bread and Circus” from European Histories
Read the executive summary of the decrees at the Italian Newspaper Linkiesta