A bakery offering contemporary and classic Italian pastries is now open in Wicker Park with another location opening in Lakeview this weekend. Dolci Amori, 2010 W. Pierce Ave., is the latest project of Ciro Longobardo, who also owns Italian restaurant Piccolo Sogno in River West. The Wicker Park bakery opened Thursday, the first of four Longobardo plans to launch this year around the city.

Operating an Italian “pasticceria” in Chicago has long been a dream for Longobardo, who grew up in Naples, Italy before moving to the United States in 1996 to work in restaurants. Longobardo said whenever he’d return to his native country, he’d discover new and inventive pastries, ones you couldn’t find in the United States, where Italian bakeries felt “a little old fashioned.”