Viadeimille

A fascinating family activity, suddenly stopped, and that is renewed 60 years later by the imagination of Stefano Alderuccio as a tribute to the work started by his grandfather and to his homeland.

In the 50s, in the town of Noto, in a poetic Sicily where nature is still intact, Salvatore Scorsonelli begins the production of flower essences and especially of zagara, the very delicate and inebriating blossom of the bitter orange tree. It is in Via dei Mille, in front of his house, in a typical Sicilian garden planted with jasmine, almond and citrus trees, that Salvatore installs the distillery where for more than ten years he would manufacture one of the most precious floral oils used to design perfumes. The essence, of the finest quality, extracted by steam distillation, was shipped to France, destined to the perfumery industry of Grasse.

In 2011, Stefano, one of Salvatore's grandsons, retraces the steps of his grandfather to try to understand why that activity, so rich in memories and anecdotes, often remembered during the large family gatherings, was interrupted, and to understand if it was somehow possible to revive it.

"As children we often used to play in the garden of our grandparents. With my brothers we penetrated into that mysterious place that were the ruins of the distillery. The roof was falling down, the alembics, the glass bottles, the reservoirs were covered with dust, but the walls were still saturated with the intense perfume of the essences, a perfume that I have never forgotten."

And so begins a journey in the world of fragrances, a journey that, from the distillery abandoned of Via dei Mille, will bring Stefano from Noto, from the far end of Sicily, to Grasse, Paris, Florence and then back again to Sicily in search of the best manufacturers, the best Sicilian ingredients, driven by a unique idea: to bring those fragrances back to life.

Viadeimille is first of all the result of a family history, but it is also a story of renaissance, of friendship, of search and discoveries, of regard for deep roots and ideas.