Since the 1490s Sulmona has been the home of the now world famous confectionaries known as Confetti. All along the Corso the shop fronts selling Confetti spill over with hundreds of designs of flowers and confectionaries.

Documents dating back to the fifteenth century describe the nuns of Santa Chiara making up small silk-tied bunches of ornate flowers and rosaries using the sugared almonds of Sulmona.

The most important producers of Confetti in Sulmona are William di Carlo and Pelino who also have a free to enter museum recounting their history.

The word 'confetti' is actually the plural form of the word 'confetto' which is one of the Italian words for 'confectionary'. A confetto has always been based on coating an almond with sugar and tradionally the almonds come from Avola in Sicily. And yes the paper confetti that we throw at weddings is based on the on the same word. Sulmona has five major Confetti producing businesses and takes the whole subject very seriously indeed.

There are two fundamental types of confetti, flowers and confectionaries. Technically the flowers are simple confectionaries that are made up into flower designs. The loose confectionaries on the other hand come in many, many different flavours from chocolate covered almonds to sugar coated cherries. Just to give us an idea, below we have a small selection of flower designs. These flower designs are exquisite and all hand-made from natural materials such as cotton and silk not forgetting the petals of course which are made from cellophane wrapped Confetti. They make wonderful gifts - very unusual in that you can of course also eat them!  We think the 'Oleandro' is our current favourite.

Sugared Almond Flower - Magica

Margherita

Marillis

Oleandro

Mazzo Mandorla

Rametto Mandorla

Armonia Velo

Rametto Rosa Selvetica

With respect to the confectionaries, just as with the flowers there are tens of different types (flavours). Here is a small selection: Clive's favourite is the Cherry!

Frutta Decorata

Chocolate Hearts

Confectionaries - Cuori di Amarena (Cherry)

Avola California

Fedi Intrecciati

Avola al Cioccolato