E s’era più vecchi di quello che si pensava…

And if you were older than you thought…

Enzo Tortora would have said: where were we? We were there to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the bakery last October 20, 2022.

We had celebrated even though we already knew that the bakery had certainly been founded before 1902 when Silvio Giuntini, as can be read on the deed drawn up by the notary, Raffaello, aged 53, a baker, bought the land where he then built among other things , also a bakery.

We could guess that the origin of the bakery was before 1902 from the fact that the notary had qualified Silvio's profession, and this well before the Silvione bakery, as that town on the western outskirts of Quarrata is called today, was built. But we had no other document that could give us a certain date prior to 1902.

All this until Enrico Bettazzi, whom I publicly thank, did a search starting from the dates and places of birth of my great-great-grandparents.

Enrico found a lot: as our most distant ancestor he found in the Napoleonic era a Luigi Giuntini, father of Raphael who in turn father of my great-great-grandfather Silvio.

The amazing thing is what he found written in the birth certificate of my great-grandfather Dario: he discovered that on 23 September 1873 a child was born to Silvio Giuntini di Raffaello, aged 23, a shopkeeper.

My family has always had a grocery store with an adjoining bakery. Only in the 1920s were the two businesses divided: my grandfather Amedeo took over the management of the bakery, his brother Filiberto took over the management of the tavern and the food shop.

A first piece of information that can be deduced from this research is that my family, given the names chosen, namely Amedeo and Filiberto, looked favorably on the House of Savoy!

The second and much more relevant piece of information is the proof that the family business dates back to well before 1902. In other words, we are older than we thought: a Giuntini company has existed since at least 23 September 1873.

This discovery, although it had been assumed for some time, left me stunned. When I think about it I feel a bit as if someone had started an accelerated time machine because last October we celebrated 120 years of activity and next September we will celebrate 150!

At this point I feel like saying that we will celebrate the 150th anniversary, Enrico Bettazzi allowing and barring his new discoveries!

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