I take this phrase by Patrick Süskind from his novel "Il profumo" (The Perfume) and think that D'Annunzio would have agreed, he who loved to sprinkle perfume everywhere, on fabrics, curtains, in the air, on the bodies of the women he loved.
So much so that he created a fragrance, Aqua Nuntia, whose recipe, written in his own hand, was found in the margin of a gallant volume from the 1500s (conserved at the Vittoriale) sealed with the phrase: "Mescola, et farai opera perfetta". It was not by chance that his friend, the pharmacist Mario Ferrari, nicknamed him "Odorarius Magister".
And it is not by chance that I am talking about it at this moment, while I am looking at the blue mirror of Lake Garda from one of the windows of my B&B: this is really the paradise of odours. And what I have in store for you you will discover.
Maybe you don't know it, but we are called the "second Provence" because of a remarkable production of lavender thanks to the climate that is very similar to the French one. The Garda area is home to an indigenous variety of lavender and, if you are passing through these parts, you really shouldn't miss the opportunity to buy one of the many products of "Lavanda del Lago", a company that uses only locally grown plants.
Don't you already feel like you can smell its unmistakable scent?
But then we mustn't forget the other scents, linked to our typical local products, such as lemon or bergamot: that's why this is the paradise of smells. And of flavours.
Yes, because even food has its own unmistakable scents that affect our senses, calming or exciting them, as the case may be.
Albina Becevello, the faithful and attentive cook/governor nicknamed Suor Intingola or Suor Ghiottizia, who D'Annunzio used to get up in the middle of the night so that she would prepare (or never let him miss) his favourite dishes to anticipate (or prolong) the pleasure and ecstasy of love, knows something about this: eggs, cannelloni, ribs, roast veal.
Don't tell me you haven't felt like it too :).
So here's what I've come up with for you to take a dip in the scents and flavours of Garda:
1. from 14 to 16 May you can discover, test and buy the perfumes of Lake Garda, thanks to an olfactory journey organised in my B&B La Piccola Gardenia in collaboration with the Paola Perfumery in Toscolano Maderno. In the evening, if you stay in one of my establishments, you can dine on a menu based strictly on fish from the lake.
2. If you also like the idea of going "to dinner with the Vate", on 17 June on the occasion of the Mille Miglia 2021 (which will be run from 16 to 19) I have organised an evening entitled "Profumo D'Annunzio - L'automobile è femmina", in which D'Annunzio's taste for fragrances will also cross the threshold of the kitchen with a dinner that will take its cue from the products used to develop the fragrances best expressed in the dishes that he loved so much.
P.S. There won't be a Sister Intingola ready to get up in the night to satisfy your desires, but I assure you that as far as kitchen wizards are concerned, here we have nothing to envy to Albina.
I'll be waiting for you.
