Venice, September 22nd 2007, 8:00 am Vaporetto to Lido de Venezia - La Serenissima (September 22, 2010 New Fragrance Listing)

Photo: perfumeniche.com

I have always been drawn to Venice.  A city made up of small islands in the saltwater Venetian lagoon, Venice has no cars, no big city noises, no big city neurosis. That’s one reason why it’s called ‘La Serenissima’ .

Not having cars means that the scale of the city is smaller so you relate to it in a different way. After all, you can’t jump in the SUV and go get a litre of milk. You walk - you walk down narrow ancient streets, across bridges, along canals. Narrow streets and the omnipresent sound of lapping water makes Venice serene, mysterious and romantic. So of course I had to try a scent called Venice, by Made in Italy.

Like Sicily, its sister scent, Venice, is named for a specific date, time and place. Venice’s full title is: Venice, September 22nd 2007, 8:00 am Vaporetto to Lido de Venezia. Assigning a scent to a specific date, time and place really paints a picture and sets a mood for me (and, you’ll notice that I am posting this on Sept. 22)

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.

But this frag is not about that Venice. This is not a fragrance of the city – there is no smell of exhaust from motorboats, no smell of food, no smell of people.

This EDP shows us a different Venice. It captures a moment on a vaporetto, out on the sea, away from the tourist sites, early in the morning on the first day of autumn. The picture on the bottle shows a young woman on a vaporetto, which is moving away from Venice towards the Lido – the strip of land with hotels and sandy beaches that face the Adriatic Sea.

Venice opens with the smell of the sea – the salty sea. Bergamot adds a cool freshness, tempered by anise, which adds a very slight sweetness. A soft floral note of peony appears, to give it organic depth sandal wood rounds it out with a woody note, while patchouli gives at an exotic earthiness - a reminder of Venice’s past as a powerful trading post with the east - while musk gives it a softness.

It delivers as advertised: it’s what you would smell standing on a vaporetto in the chilly air of an early morning in fall, moving on the salty sea between an ancient city and an island with sandy beaches populated not by summer swimmers and sunbathers, but a few straggling tourists and locals in light sweaters and jackets.

On me, there are no real phases to the scent – nothing loud, nothing jarring, no tricks, no surprises. It is as ethereal, haunting and serene as that moment in Venice on September 22nd 2007, 8:00 am.   

Venice, September 22nd 2007, 8:00 am Vaporetto to Lido de Venezia is listed in our Decant store. Decants are $5.00 for 1 ml.