A Sensory Conversation with Giulio Bergamaschi on 110 Years of Acqua di Parma
Imagine, for a moment, or for the length of this article, opening a perfume. Not simply lifting a cap, but entering a private threshold: the faint resistance of glass beneath the fingers, the quiet expectation suspended in the air, the first breath of light captured in scent. Take, for instance, the newly unveiled Colonia Il Profumo Millesimato, composed by master perfumer Alexis Didier from the 2024 harvest of Ylang-Ylang White grown on the island of Nosy Be, off the coast of Madagascar. Created to mark the Maison’s 110th anniversary, it becomes both a celebration and a meditation on time.
What happens in that instant when fragrance meets skin? What emotions awaken when a scent reveals itself for the first time? Guided by Giulio Bergamaschi, CEO of Acqua di Parma, this journey unfolds like a composition (moving through top notes, heart notes and base notes) to decode a story contained within a bottle yet expansive as a century of Italian culture.
Top Notes: Origins and Light
Top notes represent the first impression of a fragrance: luminous, volatile, immediate. In Colonia Il Profumo Millesimato, bergamot, blood orange, petit grain and grapefruit open with a golden clarity that feels both radiant and restrained. It is freshness shaped by discipline, brightness tempered by elegance.
These notes echo the origins of Acqua di Parma itself. Founded in Parma in 1916 by Baron Carlo Magnani, the Maison was conceived as an expression of the Italian Arte di Vivere: an art of living rooted in refinement without ostentation. At a time when heavy French perfumes dominated, Magnani imagined a fragrance that reflected the Mediterranean spirit: natural, discreet, and effortlessly sophisticated.
Parma offered fertile ground for this sensibility. A city shaped by architecture, music and gastronomy, influenced by the Farnese and Bourbon courts and refined under the patronage of Maria Luigia, it cultivated an atmosphere where beauty was woven into daily life. Perfumery emerged not as ornament, but as cultural expression, a way of inhabiting the world with grace.
Across decades, Acqua di Parma has evolved without diluting its identity. The international relaunch in the 1990s reinforced its global voice, translating Italian sprezzatura into a contemporary luxury language. Today, under the LVMH umbrella, the Maison continues to transform heritage into lived experience, balancing memory with modernity.
Heart Notes: Identity and Human Gesture
Heart notes emerge once the initial brightness settles. In Colonia Il Profumo Millesimato, the floral depth of Ylang-Ylang White, harvested in Nosy Be, is enriched by rosemary and orange leaf absolute, offering aromatic warmth and sensual clarity. It is the fragrance’s emotional core.
For Bergamaschi, the heart notes mirror the Maison’s deepest values. “They represent discreet elegance, discernment, and true sprezzatura: mastering technique so completely that effort disappears,” he reflects. He draws a parallel with Italian cuisine: complexity hidden beneath apparent simplicity.
In an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and accelerated consumption, Acqua di Parma chooses restraint, humanity and tactile intelligence. Even the bottle becomes a cultural statement: functional, recognisable, timeless. Design becomes identity, not decoration.
The Maison continuously reinterprets its codes through collaborations and contemporary expressions: from interior design to lifestyle collections, ensuring relevance without abandoning soul. Innovation, here, remains anchored in craft.
Base Notes: Geography, Memory and Expansion
Base notes anchor fragrance on the skin: persistent, grounded, enduring. Patchouli and vetiver give Colonia Il Profumo Millesimato depth and structure, echoing stability and continuity.
For Acqua di Parma, these base notes resonate with its global footprint and cultural dialogues. The Middle East and Africa remain a historic axis of perfumery and connoisseurship. “It is a region of true fragrance culture,” Bergamaschi notes, “where authenticity is recognised immediately. Our dialogue there has taught us to remain faithful to our essence rather than adapting artificially to markets.”
Africa represents another meaningful horizon. Today, the Maison operates twenty retail points across the continent, following a highly selective and focused distribution strategy that privileges quality over scale. Acqua di Parma is currently present in seven African countries: Egypt (Cairo), Ghana (Accra), Kenya (Nairobi), Nigeria (Lagos), Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoire (Abidjan), and South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg). Among these, Mauritius and South Africa stand out as the strongest markets, where lifestyle culture and appreciation for niche perfumery converge naturally.
Expansion remains measured. The Maison is evaluating opportunities in North Africa while ensuring that every new project aligns with its values of integrity, positioning, and long-term coherence. Growth unfolds like fragrance itself: layered, intentional, patient.
The anniversary campaign, shot on film by director Talia Collis and photographed by Brett Lloyd, anchors this philosophy visually. Featuring Michael Fassbender and Sabrina Impacciatore, it celebrates Parma as a cultural cradle, culminating in a travelling exhibition beginning in late 2026, a tribute to Italianity as lived experience.
Application: Living the Essence
After exploring the top, heart and base notes, the fragrance is finally applied. It settles on the skin, personalising memory, emotion and identity in a single gesture.
Asked how Acqua di Parma would be born today, Bergamaschi smiles: “Not so differently: bright, human, natural, unpretentious.”Each application becomes a quiet act of belonging, a way of inhabiting beauty, time and culture with effortless grace. This is sprezzatura distilled into essence.
