The colorful ‘fruttini di Martorana’ are a typical dessert prepared in Sicily for the solemn feast for the Day of the Dead on November 2nd, to commemorate lost loved ones on the island. The Martorana fruits take their name from the aristocrat Eloisa Martorana, who founded Palermo’s third Benedictine monastery in 1194.

In 1876, the monastery was expropriated by the State, and today houses the University's Department of Architecture, while the adjacent church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, called ‘Martorana’ by locals, is still in operation. To this day, the church still represents one of the most beautiful gardens in the city – full of fragrant roses, orange, cedar and lemon trees that sweeten the air with a delicate yet intense orange blossom aroma.