our story

The ancient confectionery "Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano" was founded in Genoa in 1780, when Antonio Maria Romanengo left his native Voltaggio, a hilly land along the road to the Po Valley, and moved to Genoa, attracted by the city's flourishing commercial activity and its large port, a crossroads of trade with the world.

Here he started a trade in spices, sugar, and colonial products. His sons Stefano and Francesco would later transform the business, adding the artisanal production of the most refined Genoese confectionery specialties – candied fruit, sugared almonds, and almond paste – to the trade.

The art of confectionery has its roots in ancient exchanges with the East, from which the Genoese learned about sugar and new preservation and processing techniques. According to tradition, the first encounter with sugar dates back to 1099, during the First Crusade, when crusaders and Genoese merchants came into contact with it during the siege of Tripoli in Syria.

Among the ancestors of candied fruit are lemon peels immersed in sugar molasses, a method that allowed for long-term preservation. Also valuable for sailors, they were carried on long sea voyages as a source of vitamin C and to prevent scurvy.

Romanengo survived the Napoleonic Wars and the difficult blockade of Genoa in 1800 without interrupting its journey.

With the Restoration, Stefano, Antonio Maria's son, decided to move the business to the heart of the city, opening a new shop a short distance from the port.

It is the spring of 1814. As the armies of the anti-Napoleonic coalition enter Genoa, contemporary correspondence documents the start of the new business and the desire to create a shop on par with the best confectioneries in Europe.

Stefano Romanengo thus established relationships with Italian and French suppliers, particularly Parisian ones, in search of crystal vases, trays, bonbonnières, and furnishings capable of expressing a contemporary and elegant taste, which he described in his letters as "modern and of better taste."

From its origins, the Romanengo shop has thus distinguished itself through a vision capable of combining artisan tradition, openness to European influences, and a constant search for beauty: values that still define its identity today.

A few years after opening the shop in Via Soziglia, Stefano Romanengo rented a new space in Campetto, in the basements of Palazzo Nicolò De Mari. This is where what can be considered Romanengo's first true manufacturing facility was born: a five-story factory, equipped with a large boiler that powered the systems for candying fruit and French machinery for chocolate processing and confectionery.

The new facility represents a fundamental step in the family's history: it marks the beginning of a broader and more structured production organization, capable of complementing the shop with a true artisanal manufacturing facility.

The uprisings of 1848 and subsequent events led to years of uncertainty and instability. With the return of peace, the Romanengo family was able to resume its path of growth, dedicating itself with renewed vigor to manufacturing and the pursuit of excellence.

It was in this atmosphere of rediscovered serenity that the great renovation of the workshop in via Soziglia took place. The family chose to accompany this new era with a symbol destined to become part of the Romanengo identity: a dove with an olive branch in its beak, an emblem of peace and hope.

The choice embodied a deep conviction: only in a climate of peace can artisanal work, trade, and the city of Genoa prosper.

Pietro Romanengo decides to radically renovate the shop in Soziglia, drawing inspiration from the elegant Parisian boutiques that had always captured his attention. The new facade, designed by Varese and built by Gio Batta Callegari, was enriched with a refined devanture, intended to hint at the richness of the interior from the outside.

It was also distinguished by its two entrance doors, an unusual feature for shops of the time. Francesco Ferro created doors and display cases finished in alpaca, while the cabinetmaker Pietro Lagomarsino, along with two ornamental sculptors, took care of the rich interior furnishings made of precious woods, including Indian walnut and thorn wood. Capitals, friezes, cornices, vases, and griffins were finely hand-carved.

In 1856, Michele Navone and Federico Guidobono completed the interior with ceilings painted in Raffaellesque and Baroque styles, decorated with flowers and rosettes.

Between epidemics, wars of independence, conflicts within the Kingdom, and later, the two World Wars, the Romanengo family faced periods of profound difficulty without ever interrupting their business. A journalist of the time humorously wrote: "With the Romanengos, you never know which wars they are talking about."

From generation to generation, from Stefano to Pietro and their descendants, the family managed to keep the tradition alive thanks to their spirit of family unity, preserving the recipes, the slow and natural processes, and the attention to quality that have always characterized their manufacture.

During these years, Pietro was joined in leading the business by his son Stefano, who in 1865 obtained a confectioner's diploma from the University of Genoa, continuing the family tradition with his father and contributing to its development.