The company, Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano, was founded in Genoa in the second half of the 18th century by Antonio Maria Romanengo, who opened his first colonial goods and drug store in Via della Maddalena.
Antonio Maria had two sons, Stefano and Francesco. Armed with a diploma in confectionery from the University of Genoa, family patriarch Stefano went on to open the Via Soziglia store which houses the company to this day; having parted company with Stefano, Francesco set up a separate shop in Via Orefici which later became known as "Vedova Romanengo". It was sold on in 1840 and has changed hands many times since, creating confusion over the name 'Romanengo' which is still used in the store's sign.
antique print of the Via Soziglia store
Stefano's son Pietro, who registered the company with the Chamber of Commerce and Arts as "Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano" to ensure that his father's name lived on, later designed the dove and olive branch logo (a symbol of peace in the wake of the Napoleonic wars). He also introduced the company's blue paper packaging which was once used to wrap up sugar cones.
Stefano and, later on, his son Pietro, continued to sell sugar and colonial wares which they imported via the port, modelling their activities on the age-old figure of the "confiseur-chocolatier".
The confectioners of the time, who later became chocolate makers as well, produced sugared goods, preserves, candied fruit, syrups and liqueurs. Originally from the Orient, these particular confectionery products appeared in Europe at the time of the Crusades.
Although Genoa excelled in its production as early as the Middle Ages and Renaissance, confectionery reached unheard-of levels of delicacy in the 18th century thanks to the influence of the French.
Parisian confectioners opened shops in Italy's largest towns and cities, including Genoa and Turin.
It was to Paris that Stefano turned for inspiration for the Via Soziglia store, lavish in its marble and fine wood features, and the range of products which he made in his Piazza Campetto workshop, fitted out with the earliest examples of industrial machinery (French, naturally).
Pietro remained true to his father's technique, taking his ideas to new heights and earning Romanengo a leading place among Genoa's confectioners. It has been said of the company that "while it remained firmly attached to the Genoese tradition of candied fruits and sugar-coated dragées, Romanengo differed from other confectioners for its superior quality products and ability to draw inspiration from - and rival - the latest French ideas".
invoice heading dated 1852
The company's reputation soon spread beyond Genoa and it began to purvey goods to distinguished members of society, including the Duchess of Parma, the Duchess Galliera, Giuseppe Verdi (whose letters on Romanengo's candied fruits are kept in the La Scala museum) and Prince Umberto, most memorably for his marriage to Margherita of Savoy in 1868. The order for the wedding is now kept in the historical archives of the Commune of Genoa: "Candied fruit, demi-sucres, elegant bonbons and small metal bonbonières decorated with pastilles".
For the visit of Vittorio Emanuele II to Savona in 1857, a council meeting was called to discuss the best sweets to offer the King. It was decided to send a telegram to a shop owner in Genoa, asking him to send "a box of the exquisite assorted demi-sucres made by the esteemed Pietro Romanengo fu Stefano to the value of at least ten Lire" by stage coach the very next day.
It was thus that Stefano and Pietro built up the company in the 1800s.
Pietro became a leading authority in his field, so much so that it was to him the authorities turned for information on the candied fruit industry. A surviving letter written by Pietro on 13th October 1863 to the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Arts reveals that "the confectionery industry was fully-developed in Genoa" by the early 19th century, particularly "as regards candied fruits, traditionally its main area of production".
Interestingly, he goes on to say that "the frequent arrival of Greek, Dalmatian and Maltese vessels" provided important supplies of fruit which were candied and "exported both to Germany and America".
Business was so prosperous that in 1829 Nice and Leghorn waived all duties on candied fruits to encourage Genoese workers and corporations to set up candied fruit factories "exclusively for exports" in their cities.
Genoa never recovered from the damage to trade. In fact, when the government decided to reinstate export duties in 1846, it came "all too late to prevent the industries of nearby cities, which had grown in size and confidence in the meantime, from emerging as powerful rivals and attracting most of the trade which was once exclusive to our city".
The letter also reveals that in 1859 Genoa's candied fruit industry employed 200 workers who produced some 200,000 kg of candied citrus peel, the vast majority of which was exported to Holland, Germany and the United States, as well as 50,000 kg of candied bitter oranges, all of which went to northern Europe, and 60,000 kg of assorted fine fruits, 3/5 of which was shipped to South America, northern Europe and Switzerland.
bill of lading (shipping document)
The founding principles set in place by Stefano and Pietro were upheld by Pietro's son Stefano, by his son Pietro and by his cousins Giuseppe and Antonio, who continued to make candied fruits, confectionery and chocolate with the same dedication, using the recipes passed down the generations.
The family was never tempted by industrialisation and Romanengo is of a similar size today as it was in the late 19th century. It is still a craftwork concern whose aim is to uphold and preserve the qualities and traditions of fine confectionery, be they from Genoa or around the world.
Today the company is run by cousins Paolo, Pietro, Giovanni Battista and Delfina Romanengo. Its Viale Mojon factory and stores in Via Soziglia and Via Roma employ 24 full-time workers and a similar number of seasonal staff.
Romanengo has a network of sales agents who serve specialist stores throughout the whole of Italy. It is known world-wide by connoisseurs of the finer things in life.