Alchermes

In ancient times in Sicily this liqueur called “Archemisi” was used against “fright worms”, that is to say when, for example, a child received a great fright from a certain event. In this case, the grandparents took care to give the child a spoon or two of this liqueur (it depended on the degree of fright…) to exorcise the fear.
These curious popular beliefs currently survive in some areas of Campania; proof of this is that the Neapolitan expression “Aggio fatt’e vierme” means “I was very scared”.
In Florence, alchermes is still prepared by the Officina Profumo Farmaceutica of Santa Maria Novella. It was a liqueur much loved by the Medici family, in fact in France it was called “Medici liqueur”.