Lolelì, a pastry shop and a family project dedicated to inclusion and opportunity.

Loleli It's more than a Turin pastry shop: it's also the symbol of redemption, of a life that isn't wasted, with the help of an entire family. Amelia Montedoro, a materials engineer, with a gesture of generosity He opened the pastry shop to give a professional future to his daughter Lorena, who graduated with honors from the Liceo del Gusto, the Beccari Institute in Turin. Lorena is autisticAs her mother Amelia told the Corriere della Sera"When the time came to figure out her future in eighth grade, I remember the phrase the specialists told me after I was diagnosed with intellectual disability: you have to identify your children's talents and build their lives around them. My daughter is methodical, she loves sequences: what could be better than pastry making, a mathematical, precise art."

Hence the idea of ​​giving life to a pastry shop, for Lorena but also for all young people with neurodivergence who, in this special place, find an important opportunity to build their future.

The name Lolelì indicates who is involved in the project: Lorena, Le (points to his younger brother, Manuele), There (Amelia). Throughout her difficult journey, full of uncertainties, Amelia has had the concrete support of the non-profit organization "Laboratorio di idee," which selected boys and girls, with or without autism, to work in the lab, from the bench to the classroom.

Amelia took the most challenging step, renovating a former hardware store in Borgo Vittoria (exactly at Via Bibiana 50) to create the necessary space for the pastry shop as well as the dining room and the laboratory.

The pastry shop offers a full service: from breakfast with croissants made by Lorena and her colleagues, to lunches with sandwiches, focaccia, and salads, to aperitifs, which are accompanied by platters and appetizers. But that's not all. The shop also aims to offer traditional Southern Italian desserts, as a symbol of unity between the North and South of Italy. "This is a neighborhood of immigrants, especially from the South, and we want to reintroduce desserts from their places of origin," Amelia explained to Corriere della Sera.

Cover image source: Corriere della Sera

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