In the window of the Antico Forno in Legna, at the gates of Castel Gandolfo, Daniela proudly displays a letter sent by the Vatican Secretariat of State and signed by the Pope Francis in which the Argentine pontiff thanks them for sending some artisan pastries. "His Holiness thanks you for the gift and the feelings of filial veneration that this kind gesture has suggested […] and gladly sends you his blessing," reads the letter, dated 2022. "Pope Francis was a fan of our pastries. Every Sunday, someone would pass by and take them to Rome."

The Catholic Church woke up this Friday with a new leader. The American Robert Francis Prevost, who also has Peruvian nationality and Spanish ancestry, had become the 267th pontiff in history on Thursday, in the be elected by a two-thirds majority by the 133 "closed" cardinals on the second day of the conclave. Before them all, gathered again in the majestic Sistine Chapel, the new Pope Leo XIV celebrated the first Mass of his pontificate, in which he called for the Church's influence to be restored and denounced the decline of faith in favor of "technology, money, success, power, or pleasure."