Quaresimali can be found throughout central and southern Italy and take on different forms and flavors.   In Tuscany, they take on the shape of the alphabet. Once found during the Lenten period between Carnevale and Easter, they are less common nowadays, but you can still find them in a number of bakeries in Florence where the letter shaped cookies are similar to a thin chocolate hazelnut meringue. Baked thin, they are crisp and sweet with distinct, dry cocoa flavor with a hint of hazelnut.

(In Sicily you might find a completely different concoction without the cocoa and enlivened with almonds, orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg.)