The names of Assisi’s traditional Carnevale sweets are a whimsical, playful symphony to the ear: castagnole, brighelle, frappe’, zeppole, panzerotti. Savoring them is poetry to the palate.

You’ll find them at the two locations of Assisi’s Pasticceria/Bar Sensi from mid-January to martedì grasso (“Fat Tuesday,” the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent), Italy’s Carnevale (Mardi Gras). During Carnevale, pleasurable indulgences precede the Lenten period of penance. Rich Carnevale sweets are abundant for dessert or in the morning with espresso.

On a cold, misty February Sunday morning, I dropped in at the small Pasticceria/Bar Sensi in Via Fontebella where Bibi Sensi and staff were in the pasticceria (bakery), just behind the bar, frying the castagnole and filling the brighelle with crema chantilly and drizzling castagnole with alchermes (a red liqueur of spices, rosewater, and anice of Persian origin) and honey. I remember years ago when Bibi’s hard-working parents, Orlando and Stella, did the baking with their young sons, Bibi and his brother Lucio. Bibi’s uncle, Zio Gianni, still pitches in now and then and he was there frying le castagnole, telling me with a smile, “I’m retired now from refinishing furniture, and I do this for fun. My hands are tempered so even splattering oil doesn’t bother me.” As Bibi lifted four castagnole out of the oil, he warned, “But working with four is tricky; you have to be careful.”

At a table near Bibi, the Moroccan pastry assistant, Ottman, drizzled some castagnole with alchermes, rolled others in honey, and dipped yet other castagnole in honey after drizzling with the red liqueur. Ottman filled the delicate small fritters, le brighelle, too with a decadent crema chantilly (pastry cream and whipped cream). Larger fritters, le zeppole, are filled with French yellow pastry cream and rum.

After my visit at the bakery, I stopped at the main Pasticceria/Bar Sensi on Corso Mazzini where Bibi’s brother Lucio was unloading pastries from their bakery van, including huge zeppole oozing pastry cream and alchermes-drenched castagnole.

If you’re here during Carnevale time, be sure to try those huge, sweet ravioli i panzerotti stuffed with ricottta and alchermes with the red liqueur drizzled on top of some. Bibi had insisted on sending a couple home with me. The simplest Carnevale sweets? Probably the frappe’; delicately fried ribbons of dough with ancient origins dating back to the Roman Empire when they were called “frictilia.”

Weekend ballroom dancing, kaleidoscope parades of floats topped with costumed and masked ebullient children and adults, and myriads of enticing sweets. It’s Carnevale in Italy!