The Chinotto from Savona
Since 2004, it has been granted the Slow Food Presidium status. This tree is native to China: it was imported by a sailor from Savona in the 16th Century and planted on the Ligurian coast, where it fit perfectly in with the local environmental conditions.
The first candying shop in Liguria dates back to 1877, when the company Silvestre-Allemand moved from the town of Apt, in the South-East of France, where it had been operating since 1780, to Savona.
Towards the end of the 19th Century the ‘Chinottos Cooperative Society’ was established in Savona, to grow, process and sell these fruits. Later on, most of the plantations around Savona were destroyed as a result of urbanisation and adverse and sudden climate changes. However, thanks to a group of experts and lovers they were restored several years ago. Nowadays, chinotto is experiencing an amazing comeback: from the popular, traditional soft drink of the 1930s, to its use as ingredient in cosmetic products. Because of its remarkable organoleptic properties, the Chinotto from Savona has now become the local product par excellence.
Actually, Savona is known as the ‘Town of Chinotto’, having registered its trademark ‘Chinotto from Savona’.
In 2019, as part of the European project called ‘Un mare di agrumi’ (‘A sea of citrus fruits’), Savona officially opened the ‘Giardino degli agrumi’ (Citrus Grove) inside the historical Priamar Fortress compound.
