On course 7, a waiter wheeled in a cart with a mountain of ice cream churned within the Carpigiani machine we had all visited many hours earlier. The cart was stuffed with chocolate sauce, chocolate balls, rum balls, zabaglione, Grand Marnier, Chartreuse and Borsci. Venturelli asked for ice cream with a little bit of Chartreuse. When he finished, he asked for a second bowl, this time with Grand Marnier. After emptying the second bowl, he suddenly disappeared from the table and was gone for 10 minutes, probably on a rejuvenation walk. When he returned, he asked for a 3rd bowl of ice cream – this time without decorations.
The last bottle of perfume spread across the table. This one, called Avatar, mimicked the doorway to a gelateria. It was probably the most disturbingly suggestive of the three lunch smells. When first sprayed, it smelled of cold marble, polished glass and wiped surfaces. Ten minutes later I smelled the ice cream: cream, egg yolks, white sugar. Later that evening, long after lunch was over, I sniffed my left wrist and almost screamed. The cold marble and sweet cream are gone. In their place there was a smell that had not been there before, that looked as if it would come from nothing. It was the smell of freshly baked ice cream cones. What sort of magic was that?
It’s actually not any sort of magic in the event you’re a chemist. Fragrances are composed of molecules of assorted sizes, weights and degrees of complexity. Some odor molecules are detectable by humans, but for us to smell them, they have to evaporate from where they’re situated – a ripe nectarine, a sports bag – and physically enter the nose. Because the smelly particles that make up perfume have different shapes and weights, they escape and enter the nose at different rates. Some immediately approach there; others stubbornly refuse to take off until the hour has passed.
When perfumers – or promotional materials accompanying perfumes – seek advice from top notes, heart notes (or heart notes), and base notes, that is what they mean. Particles that evaporate the fastest reach the nose first and disappear completely first. Top notes are ephemeral. If you purchase a fragrance based on top notes, you’ll at all times be trying to write down a check that the chemistry cannot money. After the timid top notes come stronger middle notes which have a slower evaporation rate. The base notes last the longest, sometimes even for several showers. If you realize the evaporation rate of every layer, you’ll be able to program the scent like software.
Regio Theatre the opera home is 194 years old and stands in the course of Parma. Our guide, Marina, explained to the group that there have been still families in the realm who, as descendants of the unique investors, owned private theater boxes. “These private rooms have been used in the past for secret meetings…ah…business,” Marina said. “But now, as far as we know, they are only used for a small aperitivo before a performance.” The hall was once heated by steam rising through grates in the ground. Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma and second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, may or may not have hand-selected prisoners to operate steam heating with the intention to earn her freedom. “It’s a rumor, but there is no documentation of it,” Marina said.
