A long trail of perfume connects London to Rome, passing through Turin. Laura Tonatto, one of the best-known creators of fragrances in the world, has opened with her daughter Diletta in Piazza di Pietra, right in front of the imposing columns of the Temple of Hadrian, an evocative and unprecedented "olfactory gallery". Located high up on one of the walls, next to the Art Nouveau showcase that contains the perfumes, there is a white box with an unmistakable golden logo: it is that of Elizabeth II, Queen of England. Inside that box, in 2008, Laura Tonatto brought to Buckingham Palace the exclusive fragrances that the Queen had chosen for the halls of her palaces. “When they called me to ask me if I was willing to create a perfume for Elisabetta, I thought of a joke. It could only be a dream, but sometimes dreams do come true."
Born in Turin, from where she coordinates the activity of her company, Laura Tonatto inherited the characteristics of her "nose" from her grandmother and perfected them first among the masters of essences in Cairo and then by Serge Kalougine, of Parfumerie Fragonard in Grasse , in Provence. Buckingham Palace, and a private audience with the Queen, was the high point of a twenty-year career of which the "Gallery" in Piazza di Pietra in Rome now represents the synthesis. Thanks to special installations, visitors can, for example, smell the perfume created for the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, inspired by Caravaggio's painting "The Lute Player" housed in the museum. The fragrance contains all the olfactory elements present in the painting, from flowers to fruit, to the wax of the furniture and the floor. A set of aromas that were the same ones that Caravaggio smelled while he was creating this masterpiece. Even Botticelli's Birth of Venus has its own fragrance, which recalls the different species of flowers present in the painting.
The same cultural path was followed for music, with installations dedicated to three operas by Mozart (Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute and Le Nozze di Figaro), one by Verdi (La Traviata) and one by Puccini (Bohème). While listening to a passage from each work and following the scene in a video, it is possible to smell the scent it gives off: the champagne for the toast of La Traviata, the sea and the aroma of Neapolitan coffee for "Soave sia il vento" , the glacial cold of the Queen of the Night's perfume. Even literature has its own perfumed corner, with fragrances inspired by some of the main masterpieces of fiction.
On 14 December, the evening of the very crowded inauguration of the "gallery", the images of the Lute Player, the Venus Caravaggio, the toast of La Traviata were projected on the columns of the Temple of Hadrian to celebrate the small, symbolic success of an Italian talent. Quality and passion for one's work manage to win even the worst moments of crisis.
