Making bread today: our day at Zampa Forno Etico in Rome

To truly understand how good bread is made, tasting it isn't enough. You have to see it take shape, understand the timing, precision, and calm required to make it well. So we went to gain hands-on experience: spending time in a real bakery, where everything comes to life, and getting our hands dirty. At 5 a.m., at Zampa Forno Etico in Tuscolano, work begins.

Inside Zampa in Rome: from dough to sourdough starter to an open workshop.

At this hour, no customers are in; the shutters are down. The first batch of bread, scheduled for 6:20 a.m., is being baked, the first round of deliveries to restaurants and bars. Then, little by little, the day's production begins: about 200 kilos of bread, not including the pizza and breakfast items (the latter are made in a workshop on the same street), followed by the dough to be baked the following morning. Behind every gesture lies Giacomo Carlizza's quiet work, without theatricality, with the practicality typical of someone who has learned a trade and does it naturally. "At a certain point, I got tired of pizza," he says. "Managing it is obsessive. Bread, on the other hand, is something else entirely. I started making it out of necessity, to find new inspiration."

Zampa was born here, from a desire to return to a perhaps more profound gesture and the need to challenge himself. Carlizza, born in Rome in 1992, after attending Artusi Hotel Management School, joined Pizzarium at a young age, where he spent six years alongside Gabriele Bonci, honing his technique and sensibility. Then came his experience at Eataly, then as a technical consultant for Esmach (where he still collaborates), and finally, returning home to Tuscolano, the neighborhood where he grew up, alongside his partner in life and work, Selenia Sacchetti, until he formed a young and competent team. "I was looking specifically in this area. I knew the movement of people, the schedules, the rhythms. Before taking over the place, I spent hours sitting outside, observing. I wanted to understand how the neighborhood lived."

The result is a small bakery that aims to be a reference for those seeking an authentic product, well-made and described with simplicity. The name "Forno Etico" encompasses everything: attention to the supply chain, direct relationships with suppliers, the choice of farm-grown flours processed with logic and expertise, while "Zampa" is a play on art that begins with the figure of the dog, a faithful and reassuring animal, like the product made here. "Our bread is simple," says Giacomo. "Water, flour, sourdough starter, salt, and time. We try to work with purity: if we say spelt, we mean only spelt. We don't look for shortcuts. For me, it's essential to know where the flour comes from, who grows it, and who mills it. It's a compromise between quality and workability, but it must remain a product that can be described."

The flour comes from Molino Pransani, Molino Agostini, and small businesses like Coste del Sole. All suppliers Giacomo knows personally: "You have to get in the car and go see the mills, talk to the people. It's a human relationship, first and foremost. And our job, as a neighborhood bakery, is also to spread the word. To tell customers what they're eating." Today, Zampa is all of this: an open workshop, without walls or barriers to hide the work. Those who come in to buy bread can see who kneads it, who bakes it, who weighs it, and those who want can stop in the small internal courtyard for breakfast or lunch.

Zampa Forno Etico's urban bread and the idea of time

At the heart of the offering is urban bread, the homemade loaf that best represents Zampa. "I wanted to give our bread an identity," Giacomo explains. "Everyone talks about country bread, but we're in the city, among cars and buildings. Urbano was born from this idea: a multigrain bread—type 0, type 2, Senatore Cappelli, white and whole wheat spelt, white and whole wheat rye—designed to last all week. It's a large, moist loaf. Many people buy it on Saturdays and use it all week. It costs a little more, but it lasts longer. It's a way to break away from the idea of bread being 'cheap and good as it is'."

Alongside the urban bread, there's white, unsalted, Senatore Cappelli, 100% whole wheat, rye in loaves or (upon request) in loaves, and special Saturday breads, including a chocolate one, which started as an experiment and has now become a regular. The bread calendar (almost all of which are large loaves) can be found on the Instagram profile: each day has its own rhythm, depending on the yeast and flour. It's a way to respect natural rhythms and create dates with those who live in the neighborhood. And then there are the pizzas, the linguae (delicious and long and meticulously prepared: we've seen it firsthand, literally), the focaccia barese, and the leavened breads.

The bakery closes at 2 pm. We'll see each other again in the afternoon, until 7 pm. We no longer work all night: baking has changed, the machinery has evolved, but the sense of time remains intact. "For me, making bread is instinct. If I could, I wouldn't even have written recipes. I'd just go off the cuff, whatever I feel like. Then, of course, there's the customer, and we need to ensure consistency in our products."

Making bread in Rome: the work of Zampa Forno Etico in the Tuscolano neighborhood.

Zampa is the go-to bakery for the Tuscolano area (and the goal is to team up with other businesses in the area). It's also one of the best in Rome, and beyond. But its strength lies in its simplicity. "We want to be a meeting point between businesses and people," says Giacomo, who is keen to reiterate: "Those who come here don't just buy: they can ask, tell stories, and taste. If we don't do some outreach, what's the point of staying in a neighborhood?" From a day here, kneading dough and following the rhythms, we've come to realize how the image of an "everyday" bakery, working with all its might, echoes the quality of a high-end bakery, where every decision—from the flours to the layout—follows an ethical and practical logic. A place that doesn't follow trends and maintains that intimate, profound sense of breadmaking.

Zampa Ethical Bakery. Via Valerio Publicola 73, Rome. Tel. 345 9309461. Instagram.