Profumo di Santa Marie Novella – In Rome
June 13, 2008 by HeatherCowper
If you walk between Piazza Navona and the Pantheon you will cross Corso Rinascimento and pass close to Profumo Santa Maria di Novella. I’d heard that this elegant perfumery, which started as a pharmacy run by Dominican Friars, is a haunt of those in search of sensory delights. So while the rest of my family sat relaxing in a cafe nearby, I left them to seek it out. The Roman branch is is small with walls lined with dark wooden glass cabinets, like an old fashioned pharmacy and a table in the middle with fragrances and soaps laid out to smell.
The assistant spoke good English and talked me through the different products. Although I could have gone mad on some wonderful fragrances and creams, I remembered all the perfumes I still had in my drawer at home, and limited myself to a few boxes of travel soaps to give as gifts. They made sure that they packaged them up on their special bags with a long list of all the products popped inside.
In enjoyed reading the reviews of their different fragrances on Now Smell This blog -why not try the signature Melograno (Pomegranate) which apparently smells like a combination of gold musk and pencil-eraser, drying down with a hint of leather. Or there’s the Acqua di Colonia, a citrus-floral with lots of orange blossom, which was reputedly created for Catherine de Medici – if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me.
The branch in Florence is more like a perfume museum than a shop – I found some pictures of it below. I don’t think I could resist treating myself in a place like this. The Roman branch is at Corso Rinascimento 47, Near Piazza Navona.
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Thanks to Curious Expeditions for the photos from Flickr – take a look at her whole photo set.
PS If you have trouble following those links on Now Smell This they are below.
http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/6/15/2033938.html
http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/2/27/378679.html
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Jen @ Santa Letters on Sun, 9th Aug 2009 9:53 pm
Wow – this is the kind of place my daughter would adore! Architecture and old fashioned store are similar to the original cologne shop in, guess where, Cologne, Germany.
admin on Mon, 10th Aug 2009 7:12 am
Yes Jen, I gather that the store in Florence (pictured) is even more of an experience than the Rome store that I visited.
The Pantheon - in Rome | Heather on her travels on Wed, 1st Jun 2011 8:58 am
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