PIEDMONT CHRONICLE - L'Arvista Piemontèisa

12/13/2007

The taste of history: the Arimondini of Savigliano

It’s an established truth that the culture of a population finds its best expression at the table although it’s rather unusual that a historical memory is preserved thanks to a candy. However, this is not impossible. For this to happen two fundamental requirements are essential: the presence of an important figure who has given prestige to his hometown and a long-standing chocolate confectionary industry.

This occurs in Savigliano, a town with a long history and culture located in the province of Cuneo.
First of all we must identify the historical figure: Giuseppe Edoardo Arimondi (1846-1896), a native of Savigliano, high-ranking officer in the army of the Kingdom of Italy, distinguished during the war to colonize East Africa.
On December 21, 1893 general Arimondi wins a victory in the battle of Agordat (Ethiopia). The happy news gets to Italy where the general was acclaimed a hero. The town council celebrated such a valiant and illustrious son by organizing a hearty welcome.
The historical archive of Savigliano holds the documents that report the excitement of those days: The plan for a canopy to host the authorities, illuminations, fireworks, even the score of a march composed on the occasion and suggestively titled “Agordat”. But destiny wanted that glory to be short. In 1896, less than three years later, general Arimondi died in the battlefield of Adua, where the Italian army was severely defeated. From that time on, Italian history has been dotted by other dramatic episodes and – although the consequences of colonialism are still affecting Africa – that period has been relegated to history textbooks and the name of general Arimondi is one of the many nobody who crowd the toponomastic of our towns. He would have fallen into complete oblivion hadn’t a confectioner of Savigliano thought of dedicating one of his specialities to his famous fellow-citizen.
And here is the second crucial element of this story. Back to the early 1900s the production of a distinctive sort of chocolate spreads in Cuneo: it has the dimension of a big walnut made of two wafer or meringue discs with a fill of pastry cream, chocolate or rum and iced with chocolate, generally known as Cuneesi al rum. They had an instant success and similar candies with little variation appeared in many towns of the province and took the name from the place of production: Albesi from Alba, Monregalesi from Mondovì and so forth.
The interpretation adopted by the confectioners of Savigliano requires two delicate and soft meringues, a fill of rum flavored chocolate or maraschino (a liquor distilled from the marasca, a variety of cherry with a slight sour flavor), covered with a plain chocolate, the whole candy skillfully wrapped in red wrapping (according to the rum brand) or dark green (according to the maraschino brand) with a gold decoration: in other words, the Arimondini. A story of the good old days. Nevertheless anyone passing by Savigliano and going into the town as far as the elegant piazza santa Rosa, while strolling under the galleries he or she would be surprised to notice inside the historical window of the Scaraffia confectionery the same red or green wrappings with gold decorations. And what about the contents? That hasn’t changed either: a delicacy worth tasting.
Today the Arimondini and other saviglianesi agricultural and food products are part of a project sponsored by the town council aimed at obtaining the recognition of their typicality guaranteed by the acronym De.Co ( Communal Name of Origin ).

Corinna Desole


Savigliano is an industrial and agricultural town of the Cuneo plain located at an altitude of about 1.000 feet asl and at about 34 miles from Turin and 20 miles from Cuneo. It has a population of 20.000.

Photos taken from "Corriere di Savigliano e dintorni"