L’Assalto ai Forni

Wood fire, stone-ground flours, and a small scale

Wood-fired bread is the centre of L’Assalto ai Forni, a micro-bakery in the historic heart of Ascoli Piceno that opened in mid-April 2019 as Lorenza Roiati’s personal project. A chemist by training, she brought that eye to pasta madre fermentation, grain structure and the timing of dough, and she worked with leading Italian bread and pizza bakers before returning to her hometown. The bakery is small by design: a micro panificio artigianale where the weight falls on handmade production, whole-grain and ancient-grain flours, and the heat of a forno a legna. What defines it is not a dining-room ritual but loaves, crust, crumb and the discipline of a long ferment, which is a narrower proposition than most bakeries attempt and a harder one to get right.

A small counter with the oven close by

The format is counter service, and the intimate scale and small courtyard give the visit a personal rhythm. The bakery sits in the daily flow of the historic centre, so its role is both practical and symbolic: locals come through for bread, while visitors find a working bakery rather than a staged food attraction. Production is entirely artisanal, which matters because the counter is tied directly to the work behind it. Loaves are shaped by hand, proofed on pasta madre and baked in a wood-fired oven that gives the bread its thick crust, its smoky aroma and its moist interior. Roiati is the face of the place as well as the baker, running production and communication herself, and the bakery takes an active part in local causes rather than staying behind its own door.

Order the bread, then see what else came out of the oven

Start with the wood-fired bread, because it is the clearest expression of what this bakery is. The defining elements are pasta madre, farine integre, ancient grains and the wood oven, not a long restaurant-style list, and the bread carries the flavour, crust and texture the place is known for. Viennoiserie runs alongside it, with the brioches worth asking about, and the dessert side is developed enough to be more than an afterthought. Savoury baking appears too, including pizza. Gambero Rosso awarded L’Assalto ai Forni Tre Pani in 2026, its top mark for Italian bakeries, which fits a small Ascoli Piceno operation whose reputation rests on bread, fermentation and a precise handmade approach rather than on scale or range.