In Rome’s Jewish Quarter, on the corner between Piazza Costaguti and Via del Portico d’Ottavia, is a bakery without a sign. Unremarkable in appearance, it is easy to miss. In the window are the morning’s bakes: five rows of pastries, some missing a label, others cracked and burnt. And yet, from dawn to dusk, a steady queue files along the cobbled street through the bakery’s open door.
This is Pasticceria Boccione, the Jewish Quarter’s oldest surviving bakery–a family run business and warmly lit. As I order a slice of their famous ricotta and wild cherry tart, the women behind the counter tell me with a shrug “we’ve been here for many years, tanti tanti anni.” I look it up later; 207, to be exact, and the recipe they use to make the tart is thought to date back 2,000 years, its origin emerging with the arrival of the Jewish community in Rome.
