(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130308-shoemaker-pope-Stefanelli2.photoblog600.jpg)Carlo Angerer / NBC NewsAdriano Stefanelli has been making shoes for decades, but it wasn't until By Carlo Angerer, Producer, NBC News
NOVARA, Italy -- When the white smoke will mark the election of a new pope later this month, Adriano Stefanelli will stand at the ready with nails, leather and his hammer by his side.
Stefanelli, 64, is the pope’s shoemaker, commissioned by the Vatican, and he said he will work day and night to manufacture the next pope’s new custom-made shoes as quickly as possible.
“All I need to know is the shoe size and what color the new pope wants,” he said during an interview with NBC News in his small corner store in Novara, in northern Italy. “I hope to finish the shoes in about 10 days.”
Normally the process takes about a month, with Stefanelli working on the special shoes during his free time. He makes a living by selling his line of shoes exclusively in his small shop, which his father founded in 1954 and where Stefanelli has been working since he was 14. The handmade shoes are only gifted to a small circle of special people picked by Stefanelli himself, a group that has included U.S. presidents.
(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130308-shoemaker-pope-patriarchs.380;380;7;70;0.jpg)Carlo Angerer / NBC NewsStefanelli created the flashy red shoes Pope Benedict XVI wore during most public audiences in the Vatican and on foreign trips. That garnered Benedict the title “Accessorizer of the Year” by Esquire Magazine in 2007 (http://www.esquire.com/style/fashion-story/bestdressedawards0907).
Rumors abounded that the pope wore Prada. When the Italian fashion behemoth didn’t deny the rumors, the Vatican publicly announced that Stefanelli was the creator of the red shoes.
Stefanelli proudly showed us a letter from Benedict’s secretary, Georg G