Boy oh Bollo: The sweet Sephardi Jewish delicacy warmly embraced by Tuscany

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Expelled Jews from Spain brought bollo – a rich, sweet pastry, midway between cake and bread, with honey, raisins and aniseed – to Italy. In Jewish communities, it is eaten at the end of Yom Kippur and on Sukkot, and it was also quickly embraced by the Jews Christian neighbors

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In the late 15th century, the Jews of Spain were expelled on orders from King Ferdinand II. The vast majority of them went to North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, but a small group found itself involuntarily relocated to Italy. At the time, Italy was divided into city-states and small kingdoms. Southern Italy was ruled by the Spanish crown – which is why many of those Jews chose to settle in the north, particularly in Tuscany, Venice and the Po Valley.