About Us
La Pelegrina was born in a small artisan laboratory in Sardinia, in the heart of Mediterranean sea, as a way to rediscover the authentic flavor of confectionery far from anonymous shelves full of standardized products.
We display our confections with care, in small bags ready to be tasted loose or stored in precious pastel boxes, hand-packed one by one. The Confectionery is not just a shop, but a scented lounge of toasted almonds where to sit on a sofa and share the details of your special day, an old-fashioned counter loaded with the best fruity, toasted, vanilla and spicy flavors. An experience with the taste of emotions.
The preparations for your event have put your endurance to the test? We can offer you “Village Saturday”, a chamomile flower candy. Can you feel its pleasant aroma and its soothing effect ?
There’s one last thing you need to know. La Pelegrina carefully selects the raw materials and supports small artisan productions that enhance the territories and preserve ancient techniques and crafts. We select the best ingredients from small producers in order to promote the territories and we work to restore ancient techniques of the craft.
Try our “Macchia Mediterranea”, an organic sardinian almond with myrtle berries. Harmonious in shape, fragrant and naturally colored, this is the candy for anyone on the hunt for new flavors. “Come back to me” is a Gentile delle Langhe hazelnut dragée (I.G.P.) covered with Ruby pinkchocolate, the greatest innovation in cocoa processing in almost a hundred years.
We made a dream come true
With passion and curiosity we have pushed ourselves beyond our limits and never stopped believing in our project. We have traveled in search for the best ingredients and techniques, we have rummaged through pages and pages of old recipes, met the best masters, put our hands and soul into the dough, listened and listened to old stories.
Now we are ready to tell you about our own story.
On the road of Confetto
It is not our fourth generation of Master Confectioners, but it is the first on our island
This ancient art has not been handed down to us but we have chosen to learn it with love, deeply experiencing the value of tradition
After years of working without feeling like I belonged, right before graduation, I felt a lack of meaning in my life. Everything happeneds one day during a solo trip when I received an unexpected phone call from my uncles who have recently moved to those Sulmona, where I was travelling at the time. Sulmona happens to be the capital of confetti, where they were first made in 1400 in the Convent of Santa Chiara. After a “Bocconotto” (traditional pastry ) in a Liberty Coffe shop, we run into the magnificent factory of Confetti Pelino, founded in 1783. We explored the Museum of the Confetto and we admired the confectioners at work through a small window placed on a stair covered with black and white pictures and awards.
Have always felt the charm of confetti. So small and perfectly shaped, they make me think of happy moments, wrapping my soul and keeping it safe . They say that when you’re ready, things are ready, so when my opportunity arrived, I was ready.
I was welcomed and guided inside what I remember as a faded postcard: it only took one step inside the laboratory to bring me back in time. Interesting stories have the magical power to remind you of the importance of writing your own. This exciting experience awoke a renewed enthusiasm within me: a dream of creating a traditional confectionery laboratory in my hometown in Sardinia, with vases full of loose sugared almonds and chocolate, precious ribbons, delicate packaging… The sweet smell from the back of the shop spreading through a small living room… The perfect place where to discuss every detail of someone’s most important events in life.
STORY OF A PEARL
There was a time when pearls vied with diamonds for first place as iconic objects of beauty. Unlike precious gems, pearls are naturally beautiful.
They just need to be found.
In the middle of the 16th century, on a beach on the island of Santa Margareta, a slave found a shell so insignificant that he was tempted to throw it back into the sea. He discovered within it an extraordinarily large pearl and was rewarded with freedom.
Even if you have never heard its name, La Pelegrina is the most famous pearl in the world.
Historians have called it Incomparable for its elongated neck that makes it unique, but the etymology refers to the word “pilgrim” as “errant”. His journey, in fact, has just begun, he will wander for a long time and will pass from house to house without ever finding a real master.
Arrived at the court of Spain from the Colonies, it becomes the ornament of the soft black velvet hat of Philip II. His successor will make little use of the pearl, his wife Margaret of Austria will wear it on the occasion of the Grand Ball of 1605 in Madrid to celebrate peace between England and Spain followed by great celebrations in honor of the visit of the Prince of Wales for which there will be rides and bullfights. The pearl will appear during the most important events of the Spanish court and will serve kings and queens for many generations. She will accompany a young bride, Maria Luisa d’Orlèans, who will arrive at her wedding on an Andalusian horse with her hair down her shoulders and a feather hat adorned with a pearl. It is said that Philip IV gave it to his daughter Maria Theresa, future wife of Louis XIV and so she arrived at the court of France and then went lost with the Revolution.
Others argue that, with the War of the Spanish Succession, along with the other crown jewels, the Pearl left Spain definitively, crossing the border hidden in the pocket of a valet. In any case, after 1707 its history becomes confused, it has been claimed in Spain, in Sardinia and in Moscow but every attempt to retrace its path has failed.
It mysteriously reappears in the hands of the rich Russian nobility but it is not known when and how he ended up in the jewel box of Princess Zinaida Yusupov, great heiress, known for beauty and generosity. Involved in the murder of Rasputin, his son Feliks, sole heir to the princely title and family fortune, managed to escape from Saint Petersburg with two Rembrandts and some jewels – including the famous Pelegrina – to settle in Paris. He managed to separate himself from the Pearl after giving it to a famous jeweler in Geneva, who in turn gave it to a collector who auctioned it at Christie’s in 1989.
As you have already discovered, La Pelegrina is first of all a symbol of emancipation and extraordinary beauty. The elongated shape that made it special is reminiscent of the confetto par excellence in which the fine almond is tenderly wrapped in vanilla sugar. We wanted to make it our distinctive mark by setting it like a jewel and surmounting it with a cheerful ribboned bow, ready to adorn your event.