San Martino is on November 11th. In Venice it’s like a second Christmas, a holiday full of sweets and happiness!

In this season Venice is certainly suggestive, the fog often falls between the streets creating a magical and mysterious atmosphere!

In autumn many of the traditional Venetian folk festivals are celebrated, including San Martino.

The story of San Martino tells of a noble knight who cut his cloak in two to give it to an old beggar.

San Martino is a festivity that has been celebrated for centuries by children and parents of the entire city of Venice. In the afternoon of November 11th families go down in the streets and squares and at the sound of the song of San Martin, accompanied by the noise of lids and pots, they go from house to house asking for sweets and toys.

 

San Martino: Traditional Venetian delicacies and sweets

The typical dessert of the day is a real delicacy! I’ve tasted that of many Venetian confectioners and just can’t choose my favorite one! If you are a foodie, you can’t absolutely miss it!

The dessert is composed of a shortcrust pastry base in the shape of a glazed horse and embellished with decorations made of shortcrust pastry and candies of every color and sort.

If you want to try doing it at home you’ll have a lot of fun experimenting with decorations and color combinations, it’s possible to color the shortcrust pastry adding chocolate or other ingredients!

There’s another typical sweet made of quince which in Venetian dialect is called persegada. You can find it in all the Venetian confectioneries in the San Martino period, it has the shape of a medallion with the saint’s effigy on it.

If the desserts are your passion discover other traditional Venetian delicacies in this article.