Disaronno Amaretto’s warm, sophisticated taste traces its lineage back to one of the most romantic periods in history - the Renaissance.

In 1525, Bernardino Luini of the Leonardo Da Vinci School of Art was commissioned to paint a fresco of the Madonna in the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church in Saronno, Italy.

Bernardino’s first task was to find the perfect model. While staying at a local inn, he met the young, fair-haired innkeeper and was so taken with her beauty that he chose her as the model for the Madonna in his fresco, which remains in the Basilica today.

The young girl fell deeply in love with Bernardino and, determined to properly thank the artist for the privilege of being chosen, she created a beautiful amber coloured liqueur made from a secret recipe of herbs and fruits steeped in apricot kernel oil. This gift was the first bottle of Disaronno.

The people of Saronno called this wonderful liqueur their ‘Amaretto’ (from the Italian word ‘amaro’ meaning bitter and ‘etto’ meaning ‘ish’) also describing it as ‘di Saronno’ - meaning of or from Saronno.