Di Lieto

So we left the snow and biting winds of NYC and landed this morning in a bright and sunny London. After zooming home to Landcroft House, saying thanks and goodbye to my parents-in-law, we tucked a few of Scrap’s clean clothes, some books and his toothbrush into our case of dirty clothes and set off for the M1 and Derby and Easter with my family.

Whenever we go to Derby we always, always stop on the South Lambeth Road for bread rolls, cured ham, peach and pear juices and fizzy continental water and I make us sandwiches on my knee as Robert drives. If it’s early we go to Lisboa but if it’s after about 10.30 then our favourite Italian bakery Di Lieto is usually open and if we time it right, we get there just as the pizzas are coming out. Today, we struck the jackpot and got there just as the hot cross buns were coming out.

The shop closes for a month in the summer and opens late because in the morning the bread is still proving and baking so when the doors open it’s still hot from the oven. By the time it’s cooled down, the racks are pretty well empty so you always feel lucky if you manage to come out of the shop with what you went in for. As well as the bakery you will also find a limited selection of ham, cheese, dried pasta, biscuits and soft drinks (they had Italian Easter eggs today and at Christmas they have slabs of baccalà). All you’ll ever need, really. All we seem to ever need, anyway…