Location: 14 Elm Row

Valvona & Crolla claim to be Scotland’s oldest delicatessen and Italian wine merchant. It was founded in 1934 by Alphonso Corolla, an Italian immigrant who was the son of a shepherd in the Abruzzi mountains in Italy. Initially Valvona & Corolla’s customers were the immigrant Italian community in Edinburgh. However Scottish soldiers who had taken part in the invasion of Italy came back from the Second World War had tasted Italian specialties and wanted to enjoy them at home. Now 99% of their customers are non-Italian.

Valvona & Crolla have a restaurant in the back. It is still an independent family business with home baked bread, cakes and biscuits. There is also an extensive range of cheeses, wines, champagne, cookery books, coffee, pastas, salamis, sausages, oils and vinegars.

Read more about the family history of the Crollas and their cheeses here, and more about the history of the shop here.

This is our last stop on the Calton Hill Eurowalk. We hope you enjoyed it. If you haven’t done so already, why not try the Edinburgh Central and Leith Eurowalks too?

Picture credits: Stuart Baillie Strong/Edinburgh4Europe