Arrivederci, Vincenzo: Baker known for warmth dies at 65

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on August 10, 2007

Vincenzo Marchesi, owner of Donatello Italian Pastry Shop, who always greeted customers with a "Hello, my friend," or "Bon giorno, pretty lady," died Aug. 2 at the age of 65.

He had been sick with liver cancer for more than a year but had insisted on working at his 362 College St. shop as recently as late July, his daughter-in-law, Jenny Marchesi, said Friday. "He just wanted to be here and see his people."

"It's as if he's been looking forward to your visit all day," loyal customers Gene Patenaude and Bette Abrams-Esche, of Amherst, wrote in a recent letter to the Amherst Bulletin.

'Pastry heaven'

"And if his greeting isn't enough to make you feel welcome, certainly as you debate between the pizzelles and biscotti, or the calzone and homemade soup, his habit of reaching across the countertop with a sweet treat and saying, 'Here, this is for you,' makes you think that you've just stepped into pastry heaven," they wrote.

"I was lucky to know that man. He was a wonderful person," said former Select Board member Carl Seppala.

Seppala said he has gone to the bakery twice every day for the last five years, mostly for cappuccino, and often brought Marchesi's cookies to Town Hall. "He would assure you that there were no calories in the cookies," Seppala said. "'Zero calories,'" is what he would say."

When Pelham Auto Parts, where Seppala works, was looking for a mechanic, he jumped at the chance to hire Marchesi's son Aldo, Seppala said.

"I figured as hard as Vincenzo worked, if that was Aldo's ethic, that was the guy I wanted."

Marchesi, a native of Sicily, Rosa, his wife, also of Italy, and their three sons, Salvatore, Aldo and Giancarlo, opened the business in Boltwood Walk in 1997, later moving to College Street.

Vincenzo and Rosa moved to the United States about 24 years ago from Venezuela, where they met and their three sons were born.

Above all, Rosa and Vincenzo told the Gazette in 1997, they opened the bakery for the benefit of their sons. The family sold its home in Springfield to raise enough capital.

Rosa Marchesi said they settled on Amherst as the right place to start the business, after visiting the town for the first time in January 1997.

"I see Amherst as a town you have to build little by little, and you have to have lots and lots of patience,' she said at the time.

In recent years, they commuted from a home in Chicopee.

Jenny Marchesi said Rosa and Vincenzo had struggled to stay in business the whole time they were in Amherst, but the family intends to keep the shop open.

"He wanted the store to stay open," Marchesi said. "He said, 'Whatever you do, just keep the store open.'"

His funeral was Monday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Springfield.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.