What is your motto?

Lorenzo : “Our family motto is Honor aut mors  (honour or death). Our activity does not really have a motto. It is the constant search for quality, beauty and the improvement of any aspect of our collections.”

When did you first discover the perfume world?

Lorenzo : “Certain scents of nature surrounding our family home in the countryside just outside Florence. Especially in the garden, odours of boy leaves, orange tree, lemon tree, tomato leaves and the scent of the poppies still closed and then crushed in the hand. The smell of herbs and spices such as thyme, Rosemary, sage, basil, parsley…. that we grew in the garden for cooking purposes.”

Who is the perfumer that has inspired you the most and why?

Lorenzo : “Francois Coty, for his liberal creativity and at the same time for his boldness as an entrepreneur, which he has shown continuously through out his life. I have also been struck by other perfumers, like Maurice Maurin, Guy Robert, Edmond Roudnitska: perhaps they represent the last generation of perfumers/magicians/alchemists, who had direct contact with the production of the raw materials from the various countries of the world.”

What are your raw materials of predilection?

Lorenzo : “Aromatic woods, such as sandalwood when it is possible to find a qualitative, authentic Indian sandalwood.

Odorous resins, for their virtuous and magical aspect, almost a crystal of pure perfume, furthermore for their extraordinary and rich history.

Absolute essences extracted from flowers and other parts of the plant, because they are suggestive, because their depth is mysterious, like an infinite abyss.

I also have a predilection for citrus essences, very fresh, extracted via « expression » and found in the pores of the peel.

And to finish… Balsams such as Tolu, oleo resins, like Galbanum and all the extracts used in antiquity, like Calamus, Cinnamon, Cardamom, the cedar wood and many more…”

What is your olfactive signature?

Lorenzo : “I don’t know! Each perfume involves a search, which develops during the course of creation…. thus I do not have a single signature…

What differentiates Italian perfumery from the rest of the world? How can it be defined?”

Lorenzo : “I do not believe that one can talk about Italian perfumery: I think it is the same for the rest of the world, except for France, the only country where one can say that Perfumery became a great tradition.

However Italy is an important source of precious aromatic raw materials, such as citrus fruits, genet from the South or Iris from Tuscany - and a source of new and surprising inspiration”