Renato Bosco

Anyone who has travelled at least once on the Milano-Venezia train route, has passed through San Martino Buon Albergo, almost certainly without noticing it because this town with a name that puts you in a good mood is attached to Verona, to the Verona Est toll-gate, to be precise. For those who love food, this is the village of Renato Bosco and his Saporè, an establishment selling bread and pizza, with a sweet divagation, a name that I believe he chose to end some misunderstandings with his colleagues. Previously, in fact, always in via Ponte, there was Pizzadarè, Pizza da Renato, but some people accused him of trying to be a prodigy, offering a “Pizza da re”, a regal pizza, the best one.

Today there is Saporè, in fact there are two, because at number 53 there’s Saporè Asporto (take away) and next door, at number 55, there’s Saporè where you can taste products on the spot, with a workshop in view, in the middle, where the client is almost hypnotized. The first is open every night, seven days a week, and is always closed at lunch. The pizzeria, instead, is closed only on Mondays at lunchtime, and that’s it.

Bosco, born in 1967, was already a waiter at the age of 14 and at 18 he approached the world of pizza growing fond of yeast, flour and dough. This turned out to be a true passion for bread and pizza he would never abandon, with the full discovery of mother yeast in 1996 and a constant desire to learn, understand and experiment even with pastry-making. This doesn’t happen often. Pastry-making is often disliked by many chefs, whose knowledge stops at savoury dishes, and pizza-chefs know almost nothing about it.

In the case of Renato this happened because he didn’t study pizza on its own, but first he investigated the world of bread making and leavening, and then he questioned how to season those superb discs. Bosco’s pizzas are a huge delicacy, flavours are particularly rich and there’s no risk of feeling bloated. He says so himself: “Years of experience and the desire to give my clients a digestible and tasty product have led me to perfect the different kinds of dough that I offer in my two restaurants”. His work is a constant effort to “re-unite” traditions to contemporary wisdom. His pizza is a total joy.