Secret Bakeries

Upon arriving in Florence, a few friends and I were told by prior study abroad students that there are secret bakeries located throughout the city. These secret bakeries are hidden and you are only supposed to use your nose to guide you to the smell of them. The story behind these secret bakeries is that they cook all throughout the night and into the early mornings and once the sunrise hits, they deliver their baked goods to local pastry shops located all throughout Florence. But, at two in the morning they allow people to come in and enjoy their freshly baked goods. After you have been out all evening it is the perfect treat to end your night. On Saturday night, my friends and I were determined to find one of the hidden bakeries because of all of the talk we have heard about them. At around 2:30 a.m. we began to wander around the Santa Croce area. I have to admit that we were given a little bit of a hint but at 2:30 in the morning all of the streets look like a maze anyway; so we started to sniff our way through these back allies.

Sure enough, forty-five minutes later we came across a sweet scent we couldn’t ignore. We saw two other college girls coming from the direction we were walking carrying big white paper bags. Once we saw those we knew we were close! As we walked around the corner, there was a glass door and we knew that it had to be it. So we quietly knocked on the door and a man in a white apron shyly answered. We asked for three croissants and three minutes later we had a fresh, right out of the oven croissant with chocolate oozing out of the middle. It was one of the most delicious pastries I have ever had. Only costing one euro each, we decided to go back a second time within the same night because they were that delicious.

It was fun and exciting being on the hunt for these secret bakeries and I’m glad that I got to find one the first weekend I was in Florence because for some people it takes all semester.  You will absolutely catch me eating another chocolate croissant from a secret bakery as the semester goes on!