The botanists and the art of Luca Maffei’s nose have led to an alchemy: protection of flora and fauna has been proceeded for about a hundred years – Parco1923, Paride Vitale
Parco1923, Paride Vitale – Childhood, History and Nature
A walk through the paths of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park has become a fragrance thanks to an idea of Paride Vitale and Ugo Morosi: an unmistakable perfume of history, nature and childhood that the two, friends and founders, wanted to put at the service of the World. Iris, Iris Iris, Venus’s Scarpetta, but also Wild Angelica, Honeysuckle, Juniper are the basis of the research that took more than a year to create the olfactory architecture of Parco1923’s wide range of products.
«If the Abruzzo National Park believes in it, we do it, otherwise it means it’s not the time. A perfume that narrates an olfactory heritage either you do it with those who know that heritage or it is too complicated. They took to it with enthusiasm and we had a meeting with the scientific director and the park’s botanists, who explained to us which plants make the woods smell good», Paride Vitale starts recounting.
The knowledge of the botanists and the art of Luca Maffei’s nose have led to an alchemy that reflects the balance of a pleasant place in which the protection of flora and fauna has been the founding element for about a hundred years. «The strength of a nose is this: coming to a forest, sniffing, using one’s skills, one’s professionalism to try to reproduce the scent of every single plant».
Parco1923 Natural heritage: The Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park
The Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park became a nature reserve one hundred years ago thanks to Marquis and Senator Erminio Sipari, who, realizing the richness of its nature and fauna, proposed making it a protected area. Since then, hunting of the Marsico brown bear has been banned and the ecosystem has been repopulated with endangered species of flora and fauna.
Paride Vitale continues: «The realization comes to you when you leave. As long as you stay there it becomes almost normal, when you leave and, when you love nature, you see other places you understand why a park for a hundred years unlike other parks has allowed little building and has safeguarded places by making them nature reserves. When you make the comparison, this makes you understand and become aware of how it has been protected and how nature is a heritage».
Parco1923 narrates the olfactory heritage of a unique place in the world with the aim of telling the public about nature as the first element to be protected, because it is the center of life: «We are telling a truth that is an olfactory heritage, so all we are doing is giving voice, or rather giving nose, giving perfume to what is a thousand-year-old story. If certain scents remain with you, it is because your body has appreciated them and is pleased to smell them again, so they come back to you. For me the most beautiful thing was to see that those who do not know those places by smelling that scent have the same sensations».
Luca Maffei on the construction of the olfactory pyramid of Parco1923
In the Parco1923 project, the choice of raw materials and ingredients is fundamental, and determines the quality of the product. The Scarpetta di Venere, to which a variety of products has been dedicated, is a flower that only blooms in a few specific places in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park between the end of May and the beginning of June, has a longevity of about fifteen days and cannot be picked because it is a floristic asset. It is a member of the orchid family, a flower that is referred to as a ‘dumb flower’, i.e. with striking shapes and colors but no smell. The nose has studied its nuances and shapes, attributing a scent through these visual characteristics: it has mixed ingredients to help recreate the colored veins of the petals.
«I played with a rosy note, I played with blueberry again to accentuate the color, I used a lily accord to give that softness and delicacy that it has when you see the Venus Slipper in person. I recreated what we see. That is the magic of the nose. The nose makes you smell something that you actually see. The Venus Slipper does not have a smell, but I am conditioned by my surroundings, I am conditioned by all the scents I perceive when I see the Slipper», says Luca Maffei, nose of Parco1923.
Riserva Regia, a scent of ancient mountain nobility by the nose Luca Maffei
An olfactory pyramid built on woody and talc notes blended with the scent of Marsica Iris: Riserva Regia is the latest fragrance created by Parco1923 with the intention of celebrating the history of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. While the other fragrances pay homage to the richness of the flora and the tangible beauty of the forests, Riserva Regia was inspired by the process of the events that made the park a nature reserve. Erminio Sipari’s intuition at the beginning of the 1920s stopped the extermination of the Marsican brown bear that had fallen victim to hunters and encouraged its slow repopulation: in 1920 there was no law forbidding hunting for wildlife; therefore, the Marquis and Senator decided to establish the territory as a Royal Hunting Reserve so that no one could hunt but him.
«From that moment on, the bears quickly repopulate and then they organize the hunt: a poor bear was emblematically sacrificed because the king said: ‘I will be the last one to hunt a bear, because from now on I will cede the land to an association’, which then became the Abruzzo National Park. This is a beautiful story that has a scent for me: but what is the plant? The noblest plant in the park, the iris marsica».
The Marsican brown bear and the Pietra Gentile
The Marsican brown bear is the symbol of Parco1923 and also of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park: it represents an endemism exclusive to central Italy and there are 60 of them in the whole area. The design of Parco1923 products is based on the characteristics that make the Park a special and protected place. The red thread is the timeless elements that inhabit the woods, such as the Bear emblem and the cyclical nature of the flora.
«The packaging itself tells of that place there in a somewhat poetic way. The logo is deliberately a logo from the 1920s that we were inspired by: a timeless bear with antique and noble lines in gold and mountain green. You love the park as something you recognise from childhood, because we have all been in nature a bit, taken there as children. If you know the Abruzzo National Park you recognise that scent, it transports you to your intimate memories».
I«nside the bottle we wanted to collect what nature is, the stopper is made of beech wood and we wanted to put a ring made of Pietra Gentile stone, which comes from the Pietra Gentile Mountain; it is called that because it is easy to work, you can do anything with it. No one had ever made us a ring, which we put on the stopper: it is a strange element, but it really tells the story of a place in a strong way».
The social commitment of Parco1923
Parco1923 donates part of the proceeds to the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park to support projects for the protection of the Marsican Brown Bear and the ecosystem. To remind us of the environmental wealth and the dialogue between man and nature, it also organizes activities to promote art in the woods. Every year, Arteparco takes place in the woods, an event involving contemporary art artists, who are invited to leave a work of art along the Park’s paths to encourage the reflections of visitors who encounter the works.
Parco1923
«Let’s hope the story is still a long one, because there are plenty of things, of plants, of mountains to pull up. What is the theft? Certainly to broaden the range both horizontally and vertically: so Parco1923, which is our best seller, will continue to have many declensions; to Scarpetta di Venere we will dedicate a series of more feminine products. We are now studying Riserva Regia, which is popular and is a unisex eau de toilette, but we are even thinking of dedicating a shaving line. Soon, given the great success of the home line, the Rifugi collection will be expanded with three candles that will arrive later this year».
Noemi Soloperto
