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ElAttarine
Top Review
29
Perfect devotion..., art, beauty
"So I want to stay [...]. Where would be better?"
On the canal and in the lagoon, it smells of water everywhere, sometimes saltier, sometimes swampier, on the Lido it smells of the sea, sometimes windy and tangy, sometimes rather misty and gloomy. But the water is always present. I've already described it in my Venice blog: In the very early morning, I take the vaporetto on the Grand Canal to the Lido, and there is almost nobody on the boat but me... a wonderful morning atmosphere... on the Lido, large hedges of flowering honeysuckle, ivy and jasmine exude their scent into the morning. On other days, I take the gondola ferry across the Canale close to my apartment to buy fruit and vegetables directly on the other side: juicy cucumbers, very small artichokes, bitter-aromatic oranges, radicchio, herbs... I recently visited Venice for the first time and was so touched and delighted by this city that I never expected to be. I've traveled a lot, but I've never lost my heart so quickly in one place!
"The atmosphere of the city, that faint foul smell of sea and swamp [...] - he breathed it now in deep, tenderly painful puffs. Was it possible that he had not known, had not considered how much his heart was attached to it all? [...] The evening was also delicious, when the plants of the park smelled balsamic, the stars paced their round dance above, and the murmur of the sea that had fallen asleep, softly rising, spoke to the soul."
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This fragrance also speaks to my soul and is for me an anchor of memory of this city, which I have only now come to love so deeply. The opening immediately brings the maritime notes for me, but not at all classically "aquatic", but like salty seawater and brackish canal water at the same time. And I have a very clear impression of green fig, although it is not listed here - but fortunately neither fruity nor creamy, but a mixture of moist, green, fresh and sultry at the same time. Orange blossom and ivy - just like on the Lido! - are gradually joined by immortelle. How I love this fragrance, so wistful! For me, it conveys memories of past beauty so intensely that it makes me want to cry. This phase lasts a long time for me before a soft musky base is added. Opoponax is not sweet here, but very delicately animalic and woody. I hardly notice any patchouli here, it just adds a little depth. Wonderfully composed by Michele Marin (who is also responsible for the beautiful fragrances Cacao Ritual and Animal Café by Extra Virgo, for example).
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In Thomas Mann's story "Death in Venice", the ageing writer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice, soaks up the morbid aura of the city and falls madly in love with the sight of 14-year-old blonde Tadzio. Here, Tadzio stands for youth and for everything that the extremely dutiful and controlled Aschenbach had denied himself all his life: desire, play, excitement, vibrations, tension, devotion... "to see how the living figure, pre-masculine and austere, with dripping curls and beautiful as a god, coming from the depths of sky and sea, rose and escaped from the elements: this sight gave rise to mythical ideas, it was like poetry of the beginning of time, of the origin of form and of the birth of the gods." For the first time in his life, Aschenbach's art, writing, and love are linked together when he wants to describe Tadzio - but this sweet connection becomes the condition of his downfall. Aschenbach does not survive; in the end, he dies of cholera while lying on the beach in a frenzy of emotion and watching Tadzio, who seems to be beckoning to him from afar and pointing out into the "promisingly unheavenly. And as so often, he set off to follow him."
Fortunately, this scent is not called Gustav, but Tadzio. And it will always remind me of Venice... Freely translated from the Gini homepage: Total devotion is the goal. Footprints reflecting in the sun are the only memory.
With many thanks to Can777 for the bottling and the Venice memory!
(All quotes from Thomas Mann: Death in Venice.)
Top Notes 
Ivy
Cucumber
Lime
Orange
Heart Notes 
Marine notes
Orange blossom
Blackcurrant
Base Notes 
Musk
Immortelle
Opoponax
Patchouli
Emorandeira
