Thursday 26^th May. After a visit and brunch in Matera this morning we drove over to Altamura for an afternoon stroll around the town, our guide took us to have a look around one of the oldest bakeries in Altamura = ‘Antico Sancta Chiara’.

This bakery is situated in the centre of this historic town and was well worth the visit. Baker Vito Macella bakes hundreds of loaves of his special Italian bread 7 days a week.

The bakery was built during the 15th century to bake the bread for the nuns of the nearby convent of S. Chiara.

 The oven is heated 24 hours a day. The recipe of the Pane di Altamura has remained the same during the centuries. The oven is huge, Baker Vito explained that they can bake around 320 loaves of bread at any one time.

Il Pane di Altamura is extremely tasty with a lovely crispy crust, one of the other benefits is that it can also be kept for several weeks before going stale after which it can be used to make delicious bruschetta.

Baker Vito was quite a character and as well as baking bread also makes lovely focaccia and biscuits. He loves an audience and gave us an excellent explanation on how he makes the bread with his ingredients, as well as telling us about the history of his oven and bread.