You would not believe the aroma

of this hole in the wall bakery.

http://www.bricco.com/panetteria/content/gallery.html

First time I entered it, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, even though I had to walk down a number of steps to get to the bread.

(Bet you thought I was going to post about something else!)

It's at 241 Hanover Street, very near the section of the Freedom Trail in which Paul Revere's house is located. It's in an alley, so it's easily missed.

So, if you are ever sightseeing in Boston, pick up some of this gorgeous bread, then go to the nearby Salumeria Italiana on Richmond Street and pick up Italian cold cuts or cheeses or roasted peppers or olives or whatever Italian foods you fancy to accompany the bread.

(My second most favorite sandwich: proscuitto, roasted red peppers (not jarred), and mozzarella cheese, all of which the Salumeria iffers, The Salumeria also offers excellent bread, but it is not baked there and cannot compare to the bread at Bricco Panetteria.

Then, take it all to Boston's waterfront and lunch like royalty (assuming the royal palace is smack on the ocean) on a peasant's budget.

I would love that bread. Unfortunately my immune system would be on the attack.

Why don't we have any authentic ethnic bakeries where I live...?

We had a Vietnamese one but it closed.

ethnic bakeries of one ethnicity or another, usually more than one ethnicity. Now, I am living in a neighborhood that is a cross between Italian and yuppie. However, of all the bakery bread I've had in my life--and that includes bread delivered to our door still warm, when I was a kid, this is the very best. Though I'd love to taste that bread from my youth again, for sentimental reasons. I have never seen that type since I was about seven years old. And the baker's son, who did the deliveries before school, was pretty cute, too.