Tiziana Terenzi - Borea
The delightful City of Flowers, as it is known in Italy, is encircled by terraces where every known variety of flower is grown, such as jasmine, magnolia, lily of the valley, freesia, countless varieties of rose and the highly prized and practically unique tuberose. This magical city is embraced by the towering Maritime Alps, which contribute to the special climate of this place and convey a sense of raw beauty in the contrast between the immensity of the mountain peaks and the immensity of the sea. The city is also renowned for its villas, with their extravagant, unique architecture and Italian gardens bursting with opulent, rare and intensely scented flowers. Delightfully manicured hedges create romantic labyrinths in which seductive scents pervade the air. One of the most beautiful and magical of all of these villas is named Borea — a magnificent, regal edifice, with an enchanted garden filled with rare, prized flowers and boasting a bewitching labyrinth. Venturing into this labyrinth, following a sensory journey enthralled by the heady perfume of paths lighted by the sputtering flames of torches of incandescent wood placed artfully to both confuse the absent-minded traveller yet guide the expert explorer, one is swept away in an overpowering vortex, in which the seduction of the scents leads inexorably to ecstasy.
The top opens with notes as unusual and esoteric as the brilliant mind which conceived these gardens, with the exotic sweetness of coconut accompanied by a combination of pear and succulent plum offset against the gentle bitterness of almond. These unique, innovative top notes rest on a bed of millions of precious flowers like the garden of Eden. The middle is the true essence of this creation, in which the mellowness and hypnotic seduction of jasmine, paired with the distinctive and irresistible allure of tuberose, is underscored by the steady strength of the bouquets of freesia and musk rose in counterpoint with lily of the valley, black magnolia — which flowers only once every two years — and white iris. Underpinning the entire creation is a solid foundation of base notes with prized woody essences — namely Indian sandalwood and oakmoss — which, however, is softened by the sweetness of vanilla emphasised by the deafening silence of musk.
Borea is an endless journey into an enchanted labyrinth that will leave no possibility of escape for those who experience it and which, above all, will give the person who wears it a presence as unforgettable as a visit to Sanremo, the city of flowers, music and love.
© First in Fragrance (p/hb)
