One of Rome's oldest companies and still family-owned and run, Pallini is best known in Italy for Mistrà and fruit syrups, but is internationally famous for its limoncello.
The company was established by Nicola Pallini, who was born in 1851, the son of a humble family in Civitella del Tronto, a small town in central Italy's Abruzzo region. By age 15, he was a merchant, selling clothes and chestnuts in local marketplaces and village fairs. Illiterate, he taught himself to read and write, and by 20, he had achieved such business success that he was considered affluent. Due to its rail connections, he moved 70km to Antrodoco, a small town on the border between Lazio and Abruzzo, where he set up a general store.
Trading in wine and liqueurs brought him into the drinks industry and enabled him to establish Pallini in 1875.
Anise liqueurs and spirits are traditional in this area, and some say that sambuca was first made in the province of Rieti. Hence, Pallini made a range of anise products, including mistrà, anice secco, anisetta and sambuca – products the company still manufactures to this day.
In 1900, two of Nicola's sons, Virgilio and Fidelfo, joined their father's business, with Virgilio handling wine and liquor production and distribution.
In 1922, Pallini's family established his business in Via dei Pastini, a street in the heart of Rome near the Pantheon. The focus became the production of mistrà, an anise-based liquor popularly drunk with espresso coffee (caffè corretto). Due to the success of the mistrà, production was expanded, and the company was renamed "I.L.A.R. (Industrie Liquori Antrodoco Roma) Distillerie di V. di N. Pallini" and then simply Società Virgilio Pallini.
In 1962, after Virglio Pallini's death, the company moved from downtown Rome to its present location, a larger, more modern facility in Via Tiburtina. The move also came about when the company started exporting to the United States, particularly Romana Sambuca, a brand Virgilio Pallini created in the mid-1920s.
Virgilio Pallini Jr. (the current President and father of Micaela Pallini, the company's present CEO) moved to New York, where he worked as a television journalist and newscaster. Recognising the opportunity to build the family's Romana Sambuca brand in America, he joined the family business in 1973 and took over responsibility for exports, quickly achieving sales of 600,000 cases per year for Romana Sambuca.
Due to interest expressed by Skyy Spirits, a large American distribution company, in 1999, Pallini produced a limoncello for export to the USA, and this is the Pallini Limoncello we recognise today. Its success is due to combining elegant packaging with a very old and traditional family recipe created by Mrs Casella, wife of Giorgio Pallini.
In 2001, the family business welcomed another generation, the fifth, when Micaela Pallini, daughter of Virgilio Pallini Jr, joined the company. While studying for a PhD in chemistry at the Tor Vergata University of Rome, she worked in the family business, introducing more scientific techniques. Micaela is now the CEO, and the company continues to benefit from her scientific background, particularly in quality control and research and development, while Luca Cervellione Pallini, Giorgio's grandson, joined the company in 2017 and is now the Pallini Limoncello Brand Manager.
Pallini remains a family-owned business run by its fifth generation. Its products, led by Pallini Limoncello, are exported to over 80 countries.
In 2024, the iconic liqueur reached a key milestone by becoming the world's best-selling Limoncello by volume and value.
While preparing for the company's 150th anniversary in 2025, Pallini Limoncello presents new, eye-catching packaging in line with tradition and with an even more iconic Italian look and feel.
The name of this liqueur translates from Italian as Pallini Mistrà Dry Liquor of Star Anise, Pallini is the family name of the producers and that Mistrà
Pallini Limoncello is made by the Pallini family from Sfusato lemons from the Amalfi coast which are infused in neutral spirit immediately after being
An almond-flavoured sugar syrup made by Pallini in Rome, Italy for use by professional bartenders.
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