Aqua Finae: diving in fragrant Portofino

As a child, you surely you happened to do this: grab a seashell and hold it to your ear, close your eyes and enjoy the echo of the tide trapped inside that odd shape. Human connection with the sea is so intimate and primitive that before leaving, fishermen felt the need to touch the water, deeply inhale, hold their hands in prayer and trust this way in the waves.
That's the magic you can feel in a place I discovered end of June, starting from Milan in the direction of Portofino. Its name is Aqua Finae. The address is on the left of Liguria's most famous square, where the eye gets lots into the sea in calata Marconi, 45.

Formerly an old boat depot, Aqua Finae opened two months ago to become an olfactory observatory to ob-servare (in latin), that is to preserve this connection with water and its smells. From the raw wood shelves to the cordage decorations and white cotton coated seats everything speaks about the sailors goodbye towards the unknown. Above all the stoups handmade by ligurian artisans (like other interior decorations in the space) hanging on the chalky walls, an invitation to dip your fingers to inhale perfumes and renew promises, trusting the power of smells and travelling with the senses.

To trace new, unexpected routes there's Beyond Appearences, a funny olfactory experience to meet our hidden self that Essences already proposed in May at Smell Festival dell'Olfatto. Grouped in Island corresponding to the seven olfactory families and undressed of their packaging, fragrances are blind smelled and only a few notes are revealed. Roaming this way I found myself in the Woods Island enjoying a mixture of oud, vetiver and pepper I later discovered to be Moresque Al Andalus.
Finally Aqua Finae aims also to promote multisensorial events putting together smell and other senses. The first event in collaboration with Esxence - The Scent of Excellence is a perfumes and wine tasting scheduled on friday July, 15 at 6.00 pm. Save the date.

In case you still need one more reason for a trip to Portofino, you can discover there the new Fiore di Portofino, a citrus and green florals bouquet Moresque tributed to this special place. Moreover you can also try straight from the stoups Acqua di Neroli the perfume exclusively created for Aqua Finae joining the sparkle of neroli to few drops of seawater to brigh home a little bit of the emotion of this journey.

Photo credits: the first pic is from Aqua Finae, the rest are mines.