Rosolio is a type of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

liqueur made from a base of alcohol, sugar, and water in the same proportion, which is flavored by adding an essence of any of various types. Despite a common misconception based on the name, rosolio has no direct connection with

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s or

petals. (Rose essence is, however, one option for addition to the base; other options include citrus, coffee, aniseed, and mint.) In fact, the name comes from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, which means "dew of the sun": ''

Drosera rotundifolia ''Drosera rotundifolia'', the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a carnivorous species of flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribu ...

''. The liqueur is common in

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and in Southern Italy. It enjoys a special popularity in Sicily, where it has been prepared since the sixteenth century and was offered to house guests as a sign of

good luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...

Сharacterization

It is widespread above all in Piedmont,

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Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and particularly in

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. In Italy it has been used since ancient times to offer to guests and in confectionery preparations. The oldest is the Franciscan rosolio prepared in the Assisi area with rose petals. On the Sicilian island, where since the sixteenth century it was produced at home and offered to guests as a sign of good luck, various recipes of rosolio were tested, including those with

citrus fruits ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

, anise,

mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

, cinnamon and pistachio. Zingarelli's Vocabulary of the Italian Language (''Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana)'' defines rosolio as “liqueur prepared with alcohol, sugar and water in the same proportion, plus an essence that gives it its name”: therefore, rose rosolio, mint rosolio, etc. The etymology that he attributes to it is that of ros solis; that is,

dew Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation. As the exposed surface cools by radiating its heat, atmospheric moisture condenses at a rate greater than that at wh ...

of sunshine.

Drosera ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginou ...

and rosolida come from the Greek meaning covered with dew, in fact the sundews seem to be covered with dew. With

L. the

pharmacopoeia A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...

made an elixir called ''ros solis'', originally from Dalmatia.Carlos Delgado, ''El libro de los aguardientes y licores'', Madrid, 1979, p. 132 The word ''ros solis'' developed into rosolio, interpreted as a liqueur made with roses. Consequently, the petals of roses are of little use in defining the name. In Ficarra, in the

province of Messina Messina (, ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital was the city of Messina. It was replaced by the Metropolitan City of Messina. Geography Territory It had an area of , which amounts to 12.6 percent ...

, a particular recipe recommended preparing it by keeping alcohol (to which the peel of three oranges macerated for forty days and vanilla had been previously added) and a

syrup In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...

made simply with sugar and

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

. Concerto liqueur is a type of rosolio produced on the

Amalfi Coast The Amalfi Coast ( it, Costiera amalfitana) is a stretch of coastline in southern Italy overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Gulf of Salerno. It is located south of the Sorrentine Peninsula and north of the Cilentan Coast. Celebrated worldw ...

, precisely in the city of Tramonti.

References

Italian liqueurs {{Distilled-beverage-stub

Сharacterization

See also

References