22 Settembre 2007 ore 8 Vaporetto per il Lido Venezia - serene and ethereal and romantic

Photo: perfumeniche

Venice is one of my favourite places to be.  Made up of small islands in the Venetian lagoon, Venice has no cars, no big city noises, and no big city neurosis. The scale of the city is smaller, so you relate to it in a different way. You walk. You walk down narrow ancient streets, across bridges, and along canals to the sound of lapping water; this makes Venice serene, mysterious and romantic. This is the Venice I find when I wear 22 Settembre 2007 ore 8 Vaporetto per il Lido Venezia from the Italian niche line Memento Italian Olfactive Landscapes.

Created by the brilliant Marie Salamagne, this stunner is named for a specific date, time and place, which paints a picture and sets a mood. The name 22 Settembre 2007 ore 8 Vaporetto per il Lido Venezia translates into 22 September 2007 at 8 Vaporetto for the Lido. It is designed to capture a moment in time – the journey by vaporetti to the Lido from the mainland at the end of summer.

It’s September, the summer tourists have gone, and so has the oppressive heat. At 8:00 am, there isn’t much activity – just the sounds of the city waking up – deliveries being made along the canals, pasticceria and bars opening for business, people pulling suitcases on wheels across uneven streets making their way to the Piazzale Roma, to catch a bus to the airport.

The picture on the bottle shows a young woman on a vaporetti, facing forward, the wind in her hair. The boat is moving away from Venice, away from the tourist sites, early in the morning on the first day of autumn and moving towards the Lido, the strip of land that faces the Adriatic Sea, its hotels empty, its sandy beaches quiet.

It opens with the smell of the salty sea. It’s a wistful, aquatic note with a cool freshness blowing through it from bergamot. Star anise, a nod to the spice shops throughout Venice, warms the opening and adds a gentle sweetness with its licorice facet. The star anise has a powdery, floral aspect that calls forward a fresh, soft floral note of peony. Black Bog-rush, which grows on the edges of salt marshes, adds a subtle grassiness that wafts over a sand accord. I smell it, and, in my mind, I can see the deserted beach. Sandalwood, woody and a little green, leads to a base of earthy, woody patchouli and sweet amber smoothed by musk.

The drydown is evocative, elegant and romantic but it’s juxtaposition of aquatic and powdery notes makes this fragrance so haunting. 22 Settembre 2007 ore 8 Vaporetto per il Lido Venezia seduces with its ethereal beauty, just the way Venice does.

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