If you are looking for a Christmas story this is a nice one. There is an Italian cake called Pandoro (bread made of gold) that had been invented by Mr. Melegatti in 1894. The cake was very successful and at Its best made 70 million euros a year. But then because of some wrong decisions the company entered a crisis and last year it was forced to close and fire all the workers. It opened again for a few months but then it closed again and the workers were left out. But this Christmas it has popped up again thanks to the investments by a new company. However, only 35 workers were hired so far. But the nice part of the story is that the special dough containing a centenary yeast that must stay all year at a constant temperature was kept alive by two workers of the pastry factory who took turns to go every day to keep the yeast alive. This for an entire year, and without any pay. Today the Pandoro Melegatti was sold on the square, because the production was too late for the cake to be distributed to supermarkets. But we bought some of them and hope that the ancient factory will remain alive and all the laborers will be hired again.
That is a great story! I do hope that the dedication of those employees pays off and the new company is able to hire all of them again- it sounds like they will. I love the shot here with the Colosseum in the background! Wish I could pop over there and buy a cake just to support them.
@caterina And the miracle of Christmas was that the Christ child was born. But the fact that yeast that should have died out or gone bad after a small amount of time but lasted for a whole year is more akin to the miracle of the oil of the Temple, that should have lasted for just one day, lasting for eight days when the new supply could arrive. Both miracle are temporal, in that they were about things last longer than they should have. That is what made me think of Chanukah when hearing your story. Was this factory, perchance, anywhere near the Ghetto? That would be too perfect. ;-)
@mbrutus Believe it or not the original factory (not the one where the miracle of the yeast happened) where the pastry shop was founded is at the border of the ghetto!nah ah
