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🔔 The Italian Almanac

October 31

Stories and curiosities for October 31, from the Italy of a thousand bell towers.

On the table today

Frutta di Martorana: in Palermo, the dead bring children almond-paste fruit that fools the eye

Fruit of every kind, the odd vegetable, now and then a fish: all almond flour, icing sugar and honey, shaped to look real. In Palermo, in Sicily, frutta di Martorana takes its name from the Benedictine convent founded by Eloisa Martorana in 1194: the nuns, tradition says, replaced the fruit picked from their garden with new ones of almonds and sugar, to decorate the convent for a visit by the pope. They are made for the Festa dei Morti, the Day of the Dead: on the night of All Saints, children find presents left by the family’s departed, with sugar puppets and biscuits called “ossa dei morti”, bones of the dead. From 2 November, the fake fruit gets eaten for real.

📍 Discover Palermo

Today's tidbits

Saying of the day 1358

Genova “la Superba”: the nickname comes from a travel guide Francesco Petrarca wrote in 1358 without leaving home

In 1358 his friend Giovanni Mandelli invited Francesco Petrarca on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The poet declined, probably because of seasickness, but wrote him a guidebook, the Itinerarium Syriacum, with Genova, in Liguria, as the port of departure: “You will see a royal city, set against an alpine hill, proud in its men and its walls, whose very appearance marks it out as mistress of the sea.” Tradition traces the epithet la Superba, the Proud One, to that passage; Genova still carries it, alongside la Dominante. Other cities have theirs: Venezia is la Serenissima, Bologna la Dotta, the Learned. Only Genova owes its name to a traveller who never set sail.

📍 Genoa →
Busted myths

Bergamot has nothing to do with Bergamo: it grows on 150 km of coast around Reggio di Calabria and is named after a pear

The name misleads: the citrus has no link at all with the city of Bergamo, and the likeliest etymology is the Turkish “Begarmundi”, the lord’s pear, from its resemblance to the bergamot pear. The tree grows almost nowhere else: a coastal strip around Reggio di Calabria, at the southern tip of mainland Italy, a couple of kilometres from the sea, sheltered by hills from the wind of the Strait of Messina, about 150 km long. It yields around 80% of world production. Nicola Parisi set out the first intensive plantation in 1750. The oil from the peel gives eau de Cologne its typical scent and Earl Grey tea its aroma. Of Bergamo, in bergamot, there is nothing.

📍 Reggio di Calabria →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 3

3 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 31

San Quintino 3

MontechiarugoloEmilia-Romagna AllistePuglia GossolengoEmilia-Romagna
Patron saint festival In 5 days 📍 Alliste

Saint Quentin, patron of the late-October fair

📅 Every year, with the Fiera di San Quintino from 30 October to 1 November

Alliste celebrates Saint Quentin on 31 October, with the Fiera di San Quintino held from 30 October to 1 November, in the parish church dedicated to him.

Fair 📍 Catania

Fiera dei Morti (All Souls' Fair)

📅 Every year between late October and early November

Catania's historic fair for the Day of the Dead returns each autumn: in 2025, from 31 October to 9 November, some 150 stalls at the Fontanarossa parking area with crafts, rides and traditional sweets.