On A Sweet Note

Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums, in partnership with Italian food writer Csaba dalla Zorza, takes the art of storytelling a notch further with three tempting tales featuring Signorina Eau de Parfum, Signorina Eau de Toilette and Signorina Eleganza (and their key ingredients). Each story is an odyssey of Signorina, entailing her trysts with exotic and delicious ingredients, which eventually leave a lasting impression on her character.

Verve gives you a heads up on each of these fragrances, and you must read the stories that come along.

Signorina Eau de Toilette

Gourmand notes: Rose oil, grapefruit, litchi.
Perfect for: The chic girl who celebrates her sensuality with a joyful ease.
Sweet Story 1: The Tea Room
The tea room was a quiet and secluded place, distinguished by its fragrance: a warm mix of rose oil and grapefruit wafted from the teapots as the amber liquid was poured into the cups. It was a pleasure to sit in this room, a relaxing moment away from the social whirl of Florence with its bustling tourists, busy shopkeepers, and ladies shopping for something new. The door of the tea room was like an old exquisite chest. By tradition, only girls of 16 could open the door and on that special birthday she became a Signorina. Her mother would gift her a key perfumed with rose oil, a sign that she had entered a new world of beauty, colours and scents. It was the key to the tea room where the Signorinas would meet, or a place simply to be alone with one’s thoughts.

Looking in from the outside through the narrow chinks of the windows, it was hard to resist the temptation to go in. Every Signorina looked so beautiful, carefree and ethereal. Some sipped aromatic cups of rose or grapefruit scented tea, others dipped homemade biscuits into glasses of milk adorned with a decorative edge. They were illuminated by an enchanting light, and breathed in the cool, fragrant air that came from the nearby garden: a fragrance that absorbed naturally into their hair and skin, where it lingered till nightfall. Only Signorinas who had reached the age of sixteen were allowed to enter the tea room, and could return whenever they pleased. It was wonderful to see how often they frequented the magical room for years to come, and kept the spirit of the Signorina deep in their hearts; always returning to breathe in the fragrance of the carefree atmosphere.

Signorina Eau de Parfum

Gourmand notes: Pink berries, pannacotta, red currants.
Perfect for: The elegant romantic who likes pink roses, candlelit dinners, classic chiffons and all things nice.
Sweet Story 2: The Pink Pearl Necklaces
The house was one of those ancient mansions overlooking the water, whose noble aura filled the air and gave it a certain character. The windows overlooked the Lungarno, offering a magnificent view of Florence. On May afternoons, when the sun tinged the waters of the Arno pink, the young Signorinas would come in from a stroll in the garden, the air filled with the scent of pink berries. In the centre of the garden stood a rare tree that had been brought from the tropics by an explorer many years ago. Its spicy fragrance created a fairy-tale atmosphere, which also captivated the heart. The tree had long branches hanging down around the trunk, and had found in Tuscany a place to serenely spread its roots. Every year it produced masses of round, pink berries, as light as a feather, which the Signorinas would string together like tiny pearls on silk threads, and wear around their necks and wrists, and in their hair together with soft pink peonies.

Those mellow afternoons spent talking about dreams, perfumes and love were made even more enjoyable by the housekeeper, who would send the three sisters dishes of her famous silky-smooth pannacotta, made even more fragrant by juicy red-currants. The scent was a delight in itself and the soft creamy texture made one long for another spoonful…and gathering berries became a sheer delight.

One day Lucrezia, Lavinia and Beatrice brought in a silk bag filled with berries from the pink pepper tree, and made intricate hair wreaths by interlacing them with peony stems and their perfumed leaves. Each Signorina choose to wear one at an evening party to celebrate the fragrance of summer, when loves were born that were destined to last. The precious hair pieces complimented the beautiful delicate dresses of the Signorinas, each in search of a face to dream of, a scent to remember, and a kiss to steal in the pale moonlight…. So that they would have another story to tell in the afternoon, lying in the shade beneath the aromatic pink pepper tree.

Signorina Eau de Eleganza

Gourmand notes: Almond, pear.
Perfect for: The sophisticated woman who is always ready to take the road less travelled.
Sweet Story 3: The Perfumed Painting
The artist’s street in Florence was a plethora of studios that displayed colourful canvases with a pungent odour of oil tempera in the air. Amongst the endless displays of splotches and bold colours was a magnificent almond tree, standing in front of the door of the only woman artist in the neighbourhood. The tree, which was surrounded by a gilded railing, was said to have been brought to Tuscany by a Phoenician princess.

The Signorina was working at her easel in the shade of the flowering almond tree. You couldn’t miss her: she had hair like spun gold, a dress the colour of almonds, and her paintings were redolent with the perfume of sun-drenched pears. The tip of her finely pointed brush traced refined and elegant lines that hardly seemed to touch the canvas; she was the only artist who did not depict the landscapes of beautiful Florence, and the only one who continued to create images that were so light they seemed transparent. She sprinkled the paintings with richly-perfumed gold dust and left them to dry in the sun so that their simplicity would dazzle anyone who passed by.

One day a woman stopped beneath the Phoenician almond tree and asked the artist what she was painting. The Signorina replied: ‘Eleganza’, and showed her the canvas. The woman immediately fell in love with what she saw, and wanted the painting. She hung ‘Eleganza’ on the wall of her sitting room and admired its refined, light and genteel style. An understated beauty, as subtle as the fine brush of the artist, who painted beneath the almond tree.